


On ice we fall (in love)

by AtLAstuff



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: I could talk about figure skating literally all day and it probably shows, I’m not anti-quads nor is this fic anti-quads propaganda, M/M, Modern AU, Mutual Pining, Ozai is a bad parent but we already knew that, Rivals to Lovers, Very background Mai/Ty Lee, discussion of fan culture within sports, figure skating AU, figure skating terms are used but hopefully everything is clear, like very slowburn, oblivious boys, slowburn, talks about unfair scoring in the FS world too because sometimes I just get salty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-01-08 05:47:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 75,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21230789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLAstuff/pseuds/AtLAstuff
Summary: Jumps. Spins. Step sequences. Choreo sequences. Long ago, the four elements were perfomed together in harmony, but everything changed when the quads attackedOr, Zuko and Sokka rivals to friends to lovers slowburn competitive figure skating AU.





	1. Lombardia Trophy

**Author's Note:**

> I haven’t posted in a while BUT I started writing this back in march and I already wrote 10 chapters so I really wanted to get this out there. It mostly follows the 2018/2019 skating season for dates and places but all the characters are fictional. 
> 
> Disclaimer: just because a character represents a certain country definitely doesn’t mean they’re natives of that country. I just had to spread them out all over the world for plot reasons with some of them being in Europe, also for plot reasons. Please don’t think I’m trying to whitewash any characters because that’s definitely not what I’m trying to do.
> 
> \--- 
> 
> [ yellow-itsme on Tumblr](https://yellow-itsme.tumblr.com/) created some [wonderful art inspired by this fic!](https://yellow-itsme.tumblr.com/post/623174150282985473/zukka-but-what-if-they-skated-inspired-by) Please go check it out! :D

_SOKKA_

Sokka didn’t have time to deal with an injury, he really didn’t, which is why he cursed perhaps a bit too loudly and for a bit too long when he fell particularly bad on a triple axel and hurt his wrist. 

It was a quiet session at least, only his sister having her own lesson nearby from their coach and Aang the other side of the rink practicing his spins. 

But here’s the deal: competition season started off in just two weeks. His first competition was Lombardia Trophy, all the way in Italy as well, and he was up against Zuko, of all people. 

Listen, he knew he shouldn’t hate the competition. And he didn’t. It came across as uncompetitive and as if he was just being a bad sportsman. Sokka didn’t dislike Zuko, or his family, for his skating abilities (his jumps especially were admittedly very good, but all the rest he could really work on some more), or the fact that Zuko often placed above him (because of that stupid quad flip and quad lutz). No, Sokka ‘disliked’ him because he always was just so… stuck up. He’d never talk to anyone after or during competitions, not even at the banquet! His sister and him just… sat there. Sure, Azula was much worse than her brother, she was actually rude towards her competition apparently (which Katara was part of), but that didn’t take away from the fact that Zuko just didn’t seem like a good person. Okay maybe that’s a bit overdramatic, saying he’s not a good person because he doesn’t talk to others, but you get the idea. 

Sometimes Sokka saw Zuko talk to Ty Lee and Mai, two other big names in the female skating world. As far as Sokka was aware, the four trained together in Moscow, even though only Azula and Zuko actually skated for Russia. Ty Lee skated for Japan, and Mai for China, but such practices weren’t too uncommon in figure skating. As a matter of fact, Aang represented Thailand but considering the training facilities, he had moved to Canada all alone at the age of 12 for his practices, where he had met the two siblings, who both represented Canada. 

  
  


Sokka quickly shook off the pain in his wrist. In just a bit over a week he’d be on a plane heading towards Italy and he had to be ready. He’d better do another runthrough of his program, just to make sure everything was how he wanted it to be. No new program ever comes out perfectly during the first competition of the season, but he could at least try. 

~~

“Good luck!” Katara embraced him a week later as he took his bags to leave. 

“Thank you,” he hugged her back. “Hey, you too in Slovakia, alright? Tell Aang good luck too!”

His sister’s first competition of the season was Ondrej Nepela, and so was Aang’s. It was the other boy’s very first senior competition too, and Sokka wished he could be there to support the two but it had been a conscious decision to go to Italy instead. That one had always been his first competition of the season, and he wasn’t about to break a tradition that worked for him. Sokka wasn’t superstitious or something, but changing up things that worked didn’t exactly seem like a good idea. 

“I will,” she pulled away and grinned. “Looking forward to you totally beating Zuko!”

“Haha yea, me too,” he tried to sound confident. 

If he won, he’d overtake Zuko in the ISU world standings, for now at least. They were only about 50 points apart, but he tried not thinking of that. Standing second in a world ranking was good as well, and with all the grand prix and championships coming up, it hardly matter who’d be in the lead now. One good grand prix and Zuko overtook him again. 

But he couldn’t worry about that now, he doesn’t need that kind extra stress. 

~~

_ZUKO_

“I’m just saying, if you don’t watch out now, the Canadian boy will overtake you in the world standings,” Azula leaned against the doorframe of his room as he was packing his bags. 

“I know,” he was well aware about the fact that Sokka was a threat in that department, it was hardly ignorable. 

Zuko had the jumps, he knew the base value of his program was higher, but Sokka always scored a lot higher in components, and especially skating skills and interpretation. His GOE on his jumps was often a bit higher too. Zuko had tried working on those aspects over the summer of course, but those things weren’t easy you know? He just loved practicing jumps so much more. The feeling of jumping higher, faster, putting all your power in one jump. The feeling of landing a jump only a handful of people in the entire world could do. 

Azula pressed on the matter once again. “Dad wouldn’t be happy if that happened.” 

“I know,” he flung a shirt into his bag in annoyance. “Listen, it doesn’t matter. I will win. And if i don’t, I just need to win my two grand prix and either European championships or World championships and I’m number one again.”

“Are you trying to explain to me how the system works?” She narrowed her eyes and pushed herself up against the doorframe to come closer. “I’ve been number one in the world standings for more than a year now, thank you very much.”

Ty Lee wasn’t even a close second, honestly. Azula had more than 800 points above her. After her, Ty Lee, Mai, Katara and Suki (in that order) all had only a tiny difference.

“I know,” he said for the third time, getting slightly, okay no, really annoyed. And where was his extra pair of gloves?

“Seems like you know a lot then,” Azula rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying you better win this thing.”

“Yes Azula, because any time I don’t win I do it because it was my intention to not win,” he rolled his eyes in response too. “Now let me pack in peace before I miss my flight and won’t even have a competition to win in the first place.”

~~

He sat alone in the plane at least, finally having some peace. His coach would only arrive around thursday so he had enough time to get used to the ice too on his own accord. 

Mai was doing Lombardia trophy as well, but she had gone home to China first for a while to practice with her coaches there in the beginning of the summer. After that, she’d probably return to Moscow for a few months. 

Zuko liked Mai the most out of all of his friends, which isn’t the biggest accomplishment ever really because his friends included his sister, Ty Lee, Mai and pretty much no one else. At competitions, he always saw everyone talk with each other. Almost all of his competitors seemed to be pretty good friends, but for Zuko it was just awkward. Him and the other three always stayed in their little bubble and ignored everyone. Mai and Azula because they simply weren’t interested in befriending the competition (Ty Lee on the other hand was extremely social), but for him it was different. 

His father said that was the best way to win, to not befriend the enemy. Well, the competition. But that was pretty much the same thing in his father’s eyes. Azula was allowed to befriend the others because she was, and he quotes, “good at forgetting they were friends during competitions”, and his father seemed to think that Zuko wouldn’t be able to do that. 

It’s not like Zuko would let his friends win if he did have them. He was a competitive person, and every competition his honor was at stake, but he knew better than to argue with his father over stupid things like friendships, especially after that one time when he was 13. He lightly touched his scar when thinking about it. 

It was always a hot topic between his fans. ‘How do you think Zuko got the scar?’ People would discuss on public forums or Twitter or even Instagram. If it was up to him, no one would ever know how it happened. Still, some of the theories his fans had were rather… wild. One of the most popular one was that he fell on his eye and got a burn wound from the ice. How they think one could fall on their eye like that, he didn’t understand either. A more realistic one most people believed is that he was trapped in a burning building when he was a child, and barely got out alive. Again, how one would only hurt one eye that way, he didn’t know. But if that’s what they wanted to believe then Zuko wasn’t about to correct them. 

Sometimes when his uncle came with him to competitions, he’d try and get Zuko to talk to the others, but luckily his uncle only went to the competitions within the country. Zuko prefered it when as little of his family as possible were there to ‘support’ him. The fact that his sister and him only had one overlapping grand prix (and most probably the grand prix final) and no Challenger series competition was almost a blessing in that department. 

He sighed and took out his calculus book, even during competitions he had to maintain his grades. Last year had been hard, finding a balance in studying at university and skating, but this year he at least knew what he was doing. Kinda. 

~~

Zuko groaned as soon as his back hit the mattress and he was finally settled in in his hotelroom. Yea, he always woke up early and he never used to have any problems with early morning practices, but after a day of travel he really wished he wasn’t in the first practice group the day after. 

8am on the ice, half an hour to get to the rink, half an hour warming up off-ice. About an hour to get ready in the morning. 6 am. Another groan. Really, any other day he wouldn’t have problems with it but plane rides really wore him out. 

He shuffled on the mattress, trying to find his phone that he had thrown on the bed somewhere, to read the document again. 

He was one of the first on the music rotation list too, so he definitely couldn’t skip out on the off-ice warm-up before. His eyes went over the document again, too see who else was in his group. Sokka. Yet another groan. 

~~

_SOKKA_

Early mornings really weren’t Sokka’s thing at all. It was wednesday and the men's short program was on friday afternoon so he knew he really had to go to practice, and he loved skating he really did, but he just wished it wasn’t at 8am. No one should be awake before 8 am. 

Knowing coach Piandao wouldn’t be very impressed if he got there late and without a warming up, he quickly combed through his hair, brushed his teeth and collected his skates to go to the ice rink as quickly as possible. 

This jetlag really wasn’t helping him either. 

7:32 he read when he walked into the rink. Okay, that’s good. He could put on his skates in 5 minutes so he still had plenty of time to warm up before going on the ice. Knowing his way around from being here before, he quickly rushed to the dressing room. 

Of course, all the other guys were there already judging by the amount of bags. Why couldn’t Sokka be a morning person? He rubbed his eyes one more time and put in his headphones to get in the zone, walking to the place where everyone was warming up. 

Then, he spotted someone. Of course Zuko was there, he was literally one of the competitors, but still. For a second, a tiny bit of nervosity went through his body before setting that aside quickly. Come on Sokka, focus! 

He started slightly jogging around, trying to stop his eyes from drifting to Zuko, who sat on the ground, doing some stretches. Has he always been this flexible? His arms looked more muscular too, and so did his legs. He probably had worked out quite a bit over the summer. In fact, Zuko had become quite a handsome man over the past few years. Not that Sokka noticed such things, obviously. 

One of the biggest mysteries in this sport was still how Zuko had ever gotten that scar on his face. It always was a major elephant in the room, and from what he’d seen online, Zuko’s fans were really dying to know too. Sokka almost felt bad for the guy. Zuko had quite protective fans honestly and if he didn’t want to share his private life then well, they were still athletes and nothing more. They didn’t owe anything to their fans. 

That had always been weird to Sokka. Having fans. It’s not like he was a celebrity really, and only a select few people would probably recognise him in the street, but the sport had grown so much over the years and he had really gained some dedicated fans with fan accounts and everything, which kind of weirded him out but it was nice to see at the same time. And most of his fans were really talented. Every time he got fanart or saw photo edits, he made sure to save them on his computer. 

Zuko had more fans though, which he definitely wasn’t jealous of. The other had gained over a million followers on instagram and twitter, which he rarely posted on (not that Sokka sometimes checked said accounts, obviously), while Sokka only had around 500K which was admittedly still a lot, and it was very flattering but still. 

But fans being involved isn’t always pretty, Sokka himself had received hate comments from fans from other skaters countless of times, which he could deal with. The other skaters probably had gotten said comments from his fans too, even if he had said multiple times during press conferences to please not do that. He had gotten a lot more comments from his fans or skating fans in general though, telling him how beautiful his skating was and about the fact that he was apparently rather handsome, which flattered his ego even more. 

It’s the price you pay for becoming famous, he supposed, not that he had ever become an athlete for fame. No, he loved his sport with his whole soul. The attention he had expected, a lot of people watch the sport lately and it’s really one of the main ways to keep the sport alive, and he loved getting attention too if he was being honest. Figure skating without people watching would be kinda pointless. You put on a show every competition for a reason. And so Sokka was still grateful for every teddy bear he got thrown on the ice after competitions, most of which he donated to local charities before going home. It’s not like he could just carry 3 bags of stuffed animals with him, and the charities could use it a lot better than he could. Most skaters did this, and fans knew that too, but it was the thought that counted. 

Anyways, back to the topic of Zuko. Yes, Zuko may be one of the most famous male figure skaters of this time, and Sokka could definitely see why. His looks were a good bonus. At least he hoped Zuko’s fans saw them as a bonus and were fan of him because of his skating first and foremost. 

~~

Practice had been hard, to be honest. It was almost like he couldn’t get used to the ice and he popped so many jumps, but at least his spins and steps were okay. 

Most of the men had already left the changing room and the next group were already on the ice, when Sokka noticed Zuko and him were now alone, which was awkward kind of, except that Zuko didn’t seem to notice the awkward atmosphere at all. 

Zuko seemed pretty much in his little bubble like always, cleaning off his blades and minding his own business. Should Sokka try to speak with him? Maybe he just was bad at conversation? Or he was too scared to befriend others? He had managed with Ty Lee and Mai, but they actually skated at his rink too. They’ve probably known each other for years. 

And so his non-existing impulse control and non-existing brain-to-mouth filter got the best of him. 

“Hey, you’re Zuko, right?” Okay now that was a stupid question, of course that was Zuko! They’ve both been skating against each other before they even became seniors! Seriously, what was he thinking?

“Uh, yea?” The other blinked at him, clearly confused by the sudden conversation. 

Sokka really should’ve thought that ‘let’s speak to Zuko’ thing through. “So uh, ready for this competition?” 

“Why do you want to know?” Zuko sounded defensive. Did he think Sokka was trying to look for weak spots so he could take advantage of them? That’s not even really possible in their sport!

“I don’t know, I just thought…” yea, what did he think? He wasn’t even sure himself. “You don’t seem to have too many friends here.” Ah yes. That’s gonna work. Just tell him he doesn’t have friends, how could that ever go wrong? Seriously, Sokka really should’ve thought this through. 

Zuko didn’t exactly look like he appreciated the comment. “I have Mai and Ty Lee and my sister?” 

“Yea but I mean, except for that,” Sokka tried talking himself out of it, “and sisters don’t really count as friends.”

“I guess you’re right,” he said, clearly not caring about it, looking back down at his skates in his lap. 

“I just thought we could become friends, you know?” Sokka said before he could even think about it. Did he? He had always thought Zuko was pretty stuck up and annoying, but he was also intrigued to get to know the guy a bit more. They had skated against each other for years now, and he barely knew anything about the guy. The only thing he knew very well was his distinct skating style and choice in music, except for that really nothing. And everyone that had watched Zuko skate for about 2 minutes knew that. 

Zuko thought about it for way too long, not moving or saying anything, and Sokka debated whether he should just take his skates, apologize and leave because he had clearly made it awkward as fuck. This was a mistake. 

“We can’t,” Zuko said in the end, the expression on his face unreadably. 

Now that was kind of weird. And rude. “How do you mean, we can’t?” It’s not like Sokka had just confessed some secret crush he had been having or something like that, he just asked to be friends! What’s the big deal?

“We simply can’t,” he took his bag and stood up quickly. “see you around I guess.” And he left. 

We can’t. Maybe Zuko was even more stuck up than he had thought. There clearly was a reason other than Zuko just being awkward or bad at conversations as to why he hadn’t made any friends yet in the field. Jerk.

Still, Sokka was more intrigued now than ever. He was gonna get to the bottom of this. 

~~

_ZUKO_

The fact that Sokka had initiated a conversation with him was unexpected, to be honest. The fact that he had asked to be friends was even more unexpected. Zuko had almost said yes, let’s do that, but he couldn’t even if he wanted to. Not that ne wanted to. No, he can’t throw away his career for friends. What would Azula say? What would his father say? 

It was weird either way, with Sokka having been his rival for the past few years now and the only interaction they’ve had before was a couple of handshakes during award ceremonies. Oh, and they followed each other on Instagram, but Sokka never liked his posts so that’s that. Not that he actively checked whether the other liked his posts or not. Zuko barely used Instagram anyway, and twitter even less. Only to post one picture after every competition and a couple here and there during the off-season, only because his fans seemed to really like it. Sokka on the other hand posted something pretty much every day, ranging from his food to him at the gym to pictures of him and his friends to posts about figure skating. None of which Zuko liked in return. 

~~

In the end, Zuko ended up losing the short program with a small margin. 

“You need to make this better in the free skate,” Azula had said, no nearly yelled, over the phone. She often called after his short program, especially if he had skated badly. Zuko wasn’t sure whether it’s her way of giving a pep talk or just pushing him down even further, but more often than not it actually worked. He did quite well under pressure most of the time. Zuko loved the feeling of winning so much, or rather hated the feeling of losing so much, that it encouraged him. 

“It was just a small stumble on the quad lutz, if I hadn’t I would’ve been first!”

“And a stumble on the axel, Zuzu,” she said. 

“Don’t call me that!”

She ignored him and said, “look, your axel should’ve gotten minus three in GOE, you’re lucky the judges only gave you minus one and twos. And mistakes on the axels really aren’t acceptable anymore at this point in your career.You got overscored too and you know it.”

He knew that as well, obviously. And he hated it when that happened. Zuko hated being overscored, because it would always start fanwars on the internet with people over-analyzing every move he did and hate messages from other skater’s fans, mostly Sokka’s he noted, as if it was Zuko that had graded himself rather than the judged. 

And he himself didn’t think it was fair either. He couldn’t blame skating fans for calling out bad judging, he would be too if he wasn’t in this. 

Over the years he had gotten used to hate messages, ‘you should just quit skating, you’re so overscored in comparison to Sokka and your sister is much better anyways’ such things. Well, strictly speaking she wasn’t, he guessed. His sister did quad salchow yes and triple axel, and she was the only woman in the field to do the salchow and one of the only two to do the axel. But Zuko could do all quads (except for quad axel which no one in the field did anyway). He was very much aware he had the advantage of being a man, and that he wasn’t the only one with those jumps. Jet could do quad lutz too, although less consistent than him, and Chan had a better quad flip than he had. Azula often scored higher in program components, well not really because women’s PCs only had a 0.80 factor while men’s had 1, but if they’d be on the same scale, she’d score higher either way. 

“I know.”

“You need to do better in performance tomorrow too,” she noted. He’d gotten 40.86 in components today, while Sokka had gotten 45.78, but at least his base value of the program was higher, that’s the only way he even made the gap less big, with Sokka getting 47.07 on technical scored and him getting 49.59. Frankly, it wasn’t the all time best skate for either of them. Far from it. 

“It’s the first competition of the season,” he said as defense. 

“That’s no excuse.”

She was right. It wasn’t. And he was going to win this competition. 

  
  


~~

“Hey,” Mai said when he opened the door to his hotel. They hadn’t seen each other before the competition and had only sent each other some ‘good luck’ texts before the skates. 

“Hi,” he opened the door more so she could pass. “You did really well.”

Mai had completely skated clean and was leading with about 7 points now. 

“Thanks, I wish I could say the same about you,” she was never one to sugar coat things anyway. 

“I’m gonna make it up in the free,” he assured her. 

“I know you are.”

~~

_SOKKA_

Sokka had lost the lead he had in the short program and was in second, with Jet close behind him. Bummed about the fall on his quad toe loop, he re-tied his skates for the award ceremony. Both Zuko and Jet had landed their quad lutzes, but Jet had fallen on a quad loop while Zuko had literally skated clean and broken the world record which, wasn’t that big of a deal considering the records were reset at the beginning of the season because of changes in rules and this was one of the first competitions of the season, but still. He had won with a good 15 point margin as well, 290.07 versus Sokka’s 275.18. It was a tiny bit humiliating, if he was being honest, but how was he going to compete with Zuko if the other was gonna pull off a clean quad lutz and flip?

Zuko had also clearly worked on his skating skills over the summer, his program components only being half a point below Sokka’s this time. To be fair, if Sokka hadn’t fallen his components would be much higher too but he had so there’s no point in ‘if’s. 

“Congrats,” he heard Jet’s voice say, “you did pretty well.”

“You too,” he replied. Sokka and Jet weren’t exactly friends, not after what he had done with his sister anyway, but they were still good sportsmen who congratulated each other obviously, and talked from time to time. He didn’t need any scandals or people telling him he’s just jealous of other people’s success. 

“Zuko’s gonna be pretty hard to beat this season,” Jet noted, “he’s improved a lot over the summer.”

“Wait ‘till I pull out that quad loop I’ve been working on. Then it’s over for you both,” he slightly laughed. Yea, he had been working on quad loop over the summer and he was planning on doing it during his first grand prix, if everything went well. 

“Wait till I get my quad lutz consistent, then it’s over for the both of you two too.”

~~

“In third, representing the United states of America: Jet!” The announcer said through the microphone, and Sokka clapped. With Jet on the ice doing his greetings, Zuko and Sokka were alone for a couple of seconds which was honestly awkward. Not that it had been the first time, but every time Sokka saw the other he cringed thinking about the conversation they had shared in the dressing room a few days back. And Zuko wasn’t even clapping for Jet! What’s that about? 

“In second, representing Canada: Sokka!” He quickly shoved those awkward memories to the back of his brain and put on a big smile, steppings on the ice and doing a couple of bows. Some of the fans had held banners with his name on it, which was really cool he had to admit. He firmly shook Jet’s hand before he quickly stepped on the podium smiling and waving one last time. 

“And in first place, representing Russia: Zuko!” The crowd went fully wild, which was fair enough considering the program he had pulled of. 

Zuko looked good in red, he had to admit, although the past few years he had always had either red or black, or a combination of the two, costumes in competitions. Maybe it was like a lucky charm or something like that. 

Okay, Zuko definitely got more muscles over the summer. He watched as Zuko quickly stepped on the carpet and stuck out his hand to shake Jet’s. His fingers were long and slender, Sokka noted. 

Zuko walked over to Sokka, careful to not trip and stuck out his hand to him as well. “Congrats,” Zuko said quietly. This was the first time he congratulated Sokka out loud during an award ceremony rather than just a simple handshake, weird. 

“You too,” he grabbed Zuko’s hand. Zuko’s hands were always really warm for having skated without gloves and standing next to the ice rink for a long while. Fixating on the warmth, Sokka suddenly realized he perhaps had grabbed on to Zuko’s hand for a bit too long, and that the other hadn’t even pulled away, which was also weird. 

Zuko stepped onto first place and Sokka vowed that next competition, that spot would be his. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anything isn’t clear with the skating language please tell me and I’ll try to change it! 
> 
> Disclaimer: none of the characters are based on real life figure skaters, nor do I mean to shade any skater, nationality or federation.


	2. Skate America

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus upload! I know I said I’d upload every tuesday but well, I was watching skating today and I got excited so here’s another chapter!

_ ZUKO  _

After the competition, he decided to quickly post a picture of him on the podium to Instagram for his fans.  _ “First competition of the season - Lombardia Trophy. Check! Thank you everyone for your support!”  _ Yea, maybe he sounded more excited on social media than he ever was in real life, but he felt like he kind of owed it to his fans. 

Azula had always been good with wrapping her fans around her finger.  _ “It’s an important skill, Zuko _ ” she had said. Frankly, he wasn’t sure why it would be such an important skill as they were athletes, not really celebrities. His fans didn’t affect his points or placements whatsoever, but his sister being the female skater with the most fans, and him being the male skater with the most fans, he really felt like he couldn’t neglect them too much. 

He quickly scrolled through the replies, even though he normally wouldn’t bother to do so. He was just so bored, having to wait for another 3 hours before he could board the plane. The first two comments he saw were from verified accounts. 

**Ty_Leexx:** well done Zuko!  _ \- 13 likes _

He could almost imagine her excitingly saying that. 

**_itsMai_** : I said you would -  _ 25 likes _

Should he reply to that? After all, Mai had also won the competition with quite a big margin. But considering social media wasn’t his strongest point so no one really expected him to reply to anything, he decided against it and scrolled through his fan’s replies, one particular one catching his eye. 

  
  


**Zukos_right_blade** : anyone else noticed the weird interaction between Zuko and Sokka on the podium? -  _ 20 likes.  _

Weird interaction between him and Sokka? Had he really? Slightly curious, he clicked on the ‘view replies’ button. 

**3A_legend** : I thought I was the only one who noticed!

**SokkasPonytail: ** y’all are just imagining things at this point istg, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary

**3A_legend:** no really! They held hands for much longer than normal. Zuko normally gives everyone a quick handshake, but rewatch the award ceremony. That’s everything but a quick handshake!

Okay so this is crazy, Zuko decided. He himself hadn’t even noticed that! Had they really? 

He quickly closed the app in favour of opening Youtube and searching for a video of the award ceremony.  _ One mississippi. Two mississippi.  _ See? That’s a normal length for a handshake, isn’t it? No, his fans were just being delusional at this point. 

He refreshed the replies. Blame it on the airport’s waiting room. 

**Zukos_right_blade: ** oh and look who liked our dear Zuko’s instagram post!

Social media is a mistake, Zuko decided quickly. Sokka had followed him for  _ years _ and they had never liked each others instagram posts. After a bit of scrolling, okay after a lot of scrolling, he noticed sure enough, there was Sokka’s username in the list. Maybe he had misclicked? Accidentally double tapped? That seemed plausible, right? 

_ Maybe we could be friends _ . Did it have something to do with their conversation earlier? 

Either way, this whole ordeal couldn’t bring him out of his concentration now. His first Grand Prix was coming up and that was way more important to think about than long handshakes and people liking his posts. 

~~

A month passes way too quickly when you do nothing but practice, go to classes, and study. By now him and Ty Lee now sat on an airplane to America ready for their first grand prix of the season. 

“The blind girl moved up to seniors,” she said, trying to hold a conversation that frankly, Zuko didn’t want to have. “What’s her name again? I can’t wait to talk to her!” 

Zuko had heard of her,  _ Toph Beifong.  _ First blind skater to compete at junior ISU competitions, and win them too. Now she’d be the first blind skater at a senior ISU competition. She had won the junior grand prix final last year, but she was kind of in the same boat as Zuko. Her jumps were amazing, big and very lengthy, barely ever underrotated. It was quite something to see, most people called them textbook jumps because they simply were. But her presentation itself was lacking, and she probably was aware of that. If the really cared about that anyway, he didn’t know. 

“Toph? I heard so.”

“I have perfected my triple axel though,” Ty Lee went on. “I’m planning on winning this.”

Zuko snorted. “Aren’t we all.”

“Is Sokka doing the competition?” Her voice sounding a bit too excited. 

Zuko replied without thinking, “no, he’s doing Skate Canada and the Grand Prix in Helsinki.” Okay that sounded like he was some crazy stalker. Listen, he only knew what competitions Sokka was doing because they had no overlapping ones and Zuko was curious which ones the other did have, nothing more. It’s important to know your opponent’s assignments, he knew most of the skater’s anyway. Like Jet had Skate America and the one in France, and Haru had Skate Canada and the one in France. Or was it the one in Helsinki? It could be NHK too… either way, he didn’t have Rostelecom cup or Skate America’s that’s sure. 

Ty Lee said nothing about that. “That’s too bad, he’s cute.”

_ He is _ . Zuko was glad he could at least keep in that thought before blurting it out. He had eyes, was it so weird for him to notice his rival’s looks? Sokka was muscled too, which he only knew because he wanted to make an estimate of how much the other had trained over the summer, obviously. 

Ty Lee said something else, but he ignored most of it. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

Sokka liked watching figure skating, obviously, so when he got home from his practice he quickly retrieved his laptop to look for a live stream of Skate America, just in time to watch the women’s short program and after that the men’s. 

“Hey, you watching?” His sister opened the door to his room about ten seconds. Has anyone in this house ever heard of knocking?

“Yea,” he shuffled a bit to the side, knowing Katara would join him. They liked watching skating together, and Sokka liked commentating on skating, even better if there was someone who would listen. Not that Katara wouldn’t tell him to shut up at least about 46 times. 

Katara went in on the silent invite and sat down on the bed with him. “It’s Toph’s first senior grand prix, isn’t it?” 

“Yup.”

How Toph had even managed to get this good at skating, he genuinely didn’t know. She wasn’t the most gracious, sure, but her jumps were extremely big and well executed. How does she even not skate into anyone? She probably had private ice during practices, as far as he knew she came from a pretty wealthy family, but even during the six minute warm up with five other skaters on the ice she didn’t have any problems which is just, extremely unbelievable, but at the same time not? Toph really is just… one of those people. 

“She’s pretty funny,” Sokka said. He had only met her once during the grand prix final last season, when she had won gold in junior’s and he had won silver in senior’s. Toph was straightforward, yes, but that’s what made her fun too. 

His sister just nodded. 

~~

In the end, Toph clearly hadn’t skated how she wanted to, but nothing she couldn’t make up in the free skate. 

A couple of skaters passed, most of which Sokka didn’t know too well. Ty Lee was last to skate and by the leaderboard up till now, it would probably be not very hard for her to go into first. 

She flawlessly landed a triple axel and went straight into a biellmann spin, pulling her foot above her head and stretching out her knee fully. 

“She’s really flexible,” Katara stated the obvious. Ty Lee had always been the most flexible in the field by far, everyone knew that. That spin should be getting high GOE with the creativity, the fact that it fitted the music, the good and clear position and just overall fastness of the spin. 

“Don’t worry, you can beat her.”

“I wasn’t worrying,” she said, sounding worried. Katara didn’t have a triple axel which made the base value of her programs a lot lower, but she had something most other skaters didn’t have; consistency. She and Azula both were probably the most consistent skaters he knew, almost never giving a bad performance. Sokka wished he could say the same for himself. 

~~

“I tried talking to Zuko during Lombardia Trophy,” Sokka suddenly said as they watched the second group of men warming up. Jet was in this competition too, together with some other skaters Sokka only knew by name and by skating against them, but never having really talked. 

Katara turned her head towards him now, looking at him weirdly as if he had grown a second head or something. “Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know, he seems pretty lonely, doesn’t he?” Sokka shrugged. “He didn’t seem to really appreciate it though.”

“Typical,” she focussed back on the screen. “He sounds like a jerk.”

Sokka innerly debated for a moment, before saying, “I don’t know, it’s kinda sad? Maybe he just needs some friends?” 

Katara didn’t really reply. 

~~

After the competition, Katara had gone back to her room and Sokka was mindlessly scrolling through Twitter. Zuko had easily won the short program, but Jet wasn’t too far behind either, both having skated a clean program. 

He followed a lot of his fans on Twitter and at least half of them were Zuko’s fans too so seeing pictures and videos and photos of the guy were inevitable, really. 

Sokka opened one of the videos from the press conference. 

_ “I’m not very happy with my skate today. I’m going to make it up in the free skate,” _ Zuko’s voice said through the screen, which really just made Sokka angry. He wasn’t happy with his skate? He literally had skated clean! What more did he want? There weren’t any mistakes! Is this guy ever even happy with anything? 

Jet’s answer was different and less frustrating, luckily.  _ “I’m glad I could put down a performance that really shows how much I have practiced over the summer.” _

Clicking off the video, Sokka scrolled a bit farther down his timeline. Another video of the press conference, this time the women’s. 

_ “Earlier this week I told Zuko I had perfected my triple axel and I did! I’m happy I could show it off to the world!”  _ Ty Lee said cheerfully. What even was the relationship between her and Zuko? She seemed pretty happy when talking about him. Not that Sokka cared, or something. Ty Lee always looked very happy though. 

_ “Yea, I made some mistakes, pretty big ones at that,” _ Toph said afterwards, much less excited.  _ “I’ve been trying to work on my performances but the program today didn’t really show that. This is my senior debut but I’m not that stressed about it. The free skate will be a lot better, I promise you that.” _

He scrolled further. 

~~

In the end, Zuko and Ty Lee ended up winning. The gala exhibition seemed fun enough, like always. Ty Lee skated to some fun and upbeat song and really had the whole crowd going, doing more acrobatic tricks than actual skating, but that was kind of the point of galas anyways. Toph skated to some superhero song and received loud cheering from the audience, and Jet skated to some cowboy song that had Sokka snorting when it came on, but which the crowd also seemed to love. Zuko skated to a slower song in what Sokka guessed was Russian. Yea, he really had worked on interpretation of the music and his gala performance showed it. It was a really nice program. Sokka loved fun and airy programs, especially for a gala, but that wouldn’t fit Zuko either way. 

During the finale, Ty Lee was talking and smiling to Zuko, who didn’t give much of a response, before going on to talking to Toph and Jet, who clearly seemed more interested. All Sokka could think about was that Zuko is a jerk even to the few friends he does have. 

~~

Later that night, Sokka dubbletapped on the ISU Instagram post of the podium in the men’s category. What? They were nice pictures! And he was a good sportsman who wanted his competition to do well also!

He also liked Zuko’s post, a picture of just his trophy, thanking his fans for the support. Sokka wasn’t sure why he liked it the first time after Lombardia Trophy, and why he had done it again now. Zuko didn’t like his pictures he had posted over the course of almost a month either. No, Sokka was just planning on being more friendly to the competition this season, nothing more, and if Zuko didn’t want to do that, well then at least no one could blame Sokka. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

“I saw Sokka liked your Instagram post!” Ty Lee said in the airplane.  _ Did he? _ “He never likes mine!” She almost whined. “I didn’t know you two were friends!”

Why the fuck would he like Zuko’s posts?

“We’re not!” He scolded. “Who knows what his motives for this are?”

“You think there’s some bad intentions behind it?” She looked at him with big eyes, clearly being somewhat shocked. “What bad intentions could someone have to like other’s posts?” 

“I don’t know, but why else would he do it?”

Zuko wasn’t paranoid or something, or he liked to believe he wasn’t anyways, but this whole situation was just strange. 

Maybe Sokka was trying to bring him out of his focus. Or maybe Sokka was just one of those overly-nice people, but based on the previous interactions they had he doubted that. 

Either way, it’s not something he should think about before he brought himself out of focus. 


	3. Skate Canada

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry I’m one day late with this! I completely forgot to post it.

_SOKKA_

Skate Canada was always nice, no jetlags of over 12 hours to deal with were always a major bonus for every competition. Sadly enough they still needed to get a plane though with them living in Vancouver and the competition being in Quebec. 

Katara and Aang were doing the competition too, and so were Haru and Mai. All in all, Sokka thought his odds were quite good with this one but Haru definitely wasn’t to be underestimated. 

“Mai was very good during Lombardia, wasn’t she?” Katara tried to keep her voice under control, but Sokka knew she was nervous. At least she could deal pretty well with stress most of the time. If anything, she would sometimes do better under stress which was very unrelatable to Sokka. 

“It’s not about previous competitions, the only thing that matters is what you do in those few minutes where you’re alone on the ice and your music is playing,” Aang said wisely, but clearly while also being nervous. It was his first senior grand prix after all and that’s a pretty big deal. He did well enough in juniors so of course a lot of people had high hopes for him and a lot of his fans would be there too to support him. 

“Stop worrying, the both of you,” Sokka shuffled in his seat. “Before I get stressed too because I deal much worse with stress than you two.”

  
  


Katara looked annoyed at him, as if to say ‘_as if you would never stress me out_’, but Sokka returned to his laptop, trying to finish one of his programming projects that needed to be handed in in a weeks time. His professors had made it clear enough that competitions are not a valid reason to miss a deadline. 

~~

A stupidly useless thought went through his head after the six minute warm up before the short program. ‘_ Does Zuko also follow the competitions live from his home _?’ There was literally no reason for Sokka to think about this, he had to compete after Haru who was now on the ice, whatever Zuko did in his own home was the least of his problems right now. 

_ Come on Sokka, focus _ ! He closed his eyes and tried to block out the sound of Haru’s music playing through the arena. Imagining himself skating, he went over his program one more time. _ Come on quad loop _!

_ Just do it like on practice yesterday! _

The music stopped and cheers grew louder and Sokka knew it was time for him to step on the ice and skate his little heart out. Aang, who had to skate after him, quickly flashed him a smile to say ‘good luck’ and Sokka returned the favour. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

“Aren’t you going to watch Skate Canada?” Azula barged into his room at an ungodly hour in the middle of the night. 

“Aren’t you ever going to learn how to knock before entering?” He groaned, turning around in his bed. It had been a hard day okay, and it was already two in the morning because _ time zones _ and he was very much not in the mood to pull an allnighter just to watch skating if he himself had a skating practice the morning after at 9am. 

“How are you going to plan on finding your rivals’ weaknesses if you don’t watch them skate?” She said. 

_ Rivals _. It seemed like such a harsh word to use now. Like this was a life or death situation. Although for his father and Azula it might as well be. And to be honest, maybe it was for Zuko too. 

“I know Sokka’s weakness,” he propped himself up on his elbows now to look at her, still not looking very impressed. “It’s the fact that he doesn’t have a quad loop, flip or lutz. And I do. He has good execution and gets high GOE on a lot of things when he skates well, but has a lower base value in general. So. Can I sleep now?”

It didn’t matter anyways, what Sokka does or doesn’t do wasn’t in his hands. The only important thing is his own skating. 

Actually, to come back to the father thing, Ozai had been suspiciously quiet lately. Sure, he had been out of the country for business related things for almost a month now, but still. The quiet was worrying, even if it was peaceful at the same time. 

“Rumour has it his quad loop is actually rather good after practicing on it all summer,” his sister a bit came closer, but crossed her arms. 

“How would you know?” 

“He posted a video of it on Instagram? Seriously Zuko, you’re terrible at keeping an eye on your competitors!” She scolded. “Also, I looked up the planned elements for the skaters and yup, he’s planning the quad loop.”

Okay so, Sokka had a quad loop. Big deal. He still didn’t have a flip or lutz. And even then, what was Zuko to do with that information? There’s nothing he can do to stop it. 

Quad loop is actually like… really hard. If he landed it clearly, Zuko would be impressed. Landing it without underrotating that is. 

“So what do you want me to do? Go break his foot so he can’t land jumps anymore?” He rolled his eyes. “All that matters is how I skate, not how someone else skates. That’s completely out of my control.”

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she said, looking unimpressed and left the room. 

And if Zuko took out his phone as soon as she left just to look up a livestream to watch Sokka, and the others, skate, well then, no one needed to know. 

~~

Sokka had fallen on the quad loop, and hard as well, but at least it was fully rotated. _ He probably hurt himself with the fall _ _,_ Zuko noted, considering the rest of his program wasn’t as fluent as it normally was. Sokka slipped behind Haru and Aang, going into third. Missing one jump in a short program, which only has three jumps to begin with, truly fucks you over. 

Alright, he had seen enough. Time for bed. He’d look up Mai and Katara’s scores in the morning. 

~~

“You seem rushed,” said Ty Lee as Zuko put away his skates in an unusual quick manner. 

Okay yea, he wanted to get home in time to watch the free skate, and what about it? He was a figure skater, goddamnit! He was allowed to watch skating, wasn’t he? All the other skaters kept up with competitions they weren’t in too. 

Azula is to blame for this all, really. She was the one making him watch the competition in the first place. But blaming Azula is useless because, well, it’s Azula. If anything, she’d be even more satisfied. 

“I’m not,” he said, still quickly gathering all of his belongings. 

She ignored him. “Are you going to watch Skate Canada?”

“No,” he lied anyway, not even sure why, as if it was some big secret that no one could know. 

“Suit yourself,” she replied. “I am. Mai did great after the short skate, didn’t she? I woke up super early at like 5AM to watch!”

Mai. He had totally forgotten about checking how she had done this morning. God, she deserved a better friend than him. 

~~

Sokka had landed not only one but two quad loops in the free program, one in combination with a triple toeloop. Zuko had to admit, when landed, his quad loops were really good. That made him a bit nervous. But it’s _ fine. Everything is fine. _

Zuko really should have turned off the live stream after Sokka had skated, gone to bed and just rested for his practice tomorrow, but he didn’t. Instead, he watched the award ceremony for literally no good reason at all. He isn’t big on award ceremonies if he himself wasn’t in it. Even when he himself was in it, he wasn’t the biggest fan. It’s more for the fans and press than anything else anyway. 

Sokka looked so happy as he hugged Aang who was now in third and Haru, now in second. Zuko had no problem admitting Sokka deserved this win. 

~~

Mai had won the competition from Katara too and Zuko felt obliged to send her a congratulations message, so he did. At least now he didn’t forget about it. 

All he got in return was a simple “thanks”. 

~~

Later that night, Zuko accidentally liked Sokka’s post on Instagram, which was a picture of him on the podium. 

Really, it was an accident! He debated whether he should unlike, but his fans watched his every move and they had probably screenshotted it already anyways, there was no point in it. 

Again not sure why, he clicked on the reactions of the post.

Maybe he should just delete the app off his phone. 

** SokkasPonytail **: congrats!! Fantastic skate like always! - 3 likes 

**IceAndGlory**: heavily underscored if you asked me, should have broken the world record, TBH - 27 likes 

Fair enough, he probably should’ve. If Zuko was a judge, he’d probably given him about 3.50 points more than he got, especially in the GOEs of his axels and step sequence. 

But Zuko isn’t an ISU judge, and skating isn’t known for fair scoring, no matter how angry anyone got. There’s no point in making a statement over scored if you want to keep your career. 

It wasn’t too long before Zuko saw his own name in the comments. 

**Zukos.3A**: omg I can’t believe Zuko liked this post! He never likes anything on instagram! - 58 likes

Curiosity killed the cat, as they say. He clicked to view more of the replies. Why do they all care so much?

**For.love.and.Sokka**: maybe they are friends? They’re competitors, that doesn’t seem like a crazy concept to me. Aren’t most skaters friendly with each other?

** Zukos.3A: ** I don’t know, Zuko never talks with anyone outside of Azula, Mai or Ty Lee as far as I noticed. And they’ve been skating against each other for ages 

**InaBauerThings**: guys we don’t know anything about their personal life, let’s stop meddling 

**Zukos.3A**: oh come on, this is a public platform, if they don’t want us to see they shouldn’t do it on the internet!

**InaBauerThings**: chill out for a second and just enjoy his skating

Zuko wasn’t about to make a comment on this either, but he quickly closed the app before his impulse control got the best of hom. 

Whatever, they could think whatever they wanted. 

~~

**Mai**: I heard you liked Sokka’s instagram post. 

His phone chimed up just as he was falling asleep. Okay yea, keeping your volume up at night wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but apart from his fans he wasn’t the most popular guy around, and all his social media notifications were turned off anyway. 

If everyone was going to keep Zuko awake in the middle of the night like this, well then, he was already scared for the next practices. 

**Zuko**: So?

Why did Mai even care? Why did anyone even care? Zuko scolded himself for even liking the post in the first place, and then scolded himself for even thinking about becoming Sokka’s friend for a second back at Lombardia Trophy because everything had been going downhill ever since. 

**Mai**: Azula’s been ranting about it over text for half an hour now. 

**Mai**: and he likes your posts too. 

It honestly had been a miracle his sister hadn’t barged into the room asking for an explanation on the matter yet. 

Before he could even type a response, Mai texted him again. 

**Mai**: Zuko, I really couldn’t care less about your motives or whose posts you like. I truly genuinely don’t care. But I’m just saying, Azula is watching you. 

As if he didn’t know that himself. The whole thing was stupid really. Everyone else had friends in the skating world but he wasn’t even allowed to like a picture from a fellow competitor? From a competition he himself wasn’t even in? 

**Zuko**: I know

He didn’t watch the gala exhibition. 


	4. GP Finland + NHK trophy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter, and definitely not my best one, I know (and I’m sorry). I’ll try to bring out another one this week!  
Just to be clear, this chapter spreads over 2 weeks (follow the Grand Prix in Finland and NHK trophy)

_ SOKKA  _

He had never been in Finland before, having missed out on the world championship two year prior due to an injury. It was somewhat exciting, being able to go all these new places all over the world. Too bad he didn’t exactly have a lot of time to explore the countries and cities, he had competitions to win after all. Especially this time it was more of a ‘fly there, skate, fly back’ kind of thing with the grand prix being so far and him having college classes to attend. 

Still, Aang seemed rather excited about the whole thing. 

The grand prix in Finland was new too, replacing the one in China, so hopefully the whole organisation wasn’t too bad. It couldn’t get any worse than the grand prix in France handing out big plastic star shapes rather than medals and having big puddles in the middle of the ice though, so Sokka wasn’t too worried about it. 

Okay, admittedly, maybe the big plastic stars were pretty funny. At least they were original. Still, Sokka prefered actual medals. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

So keeping tabs on other competitions was a thing now. At least helsinki was closer to his own time zone than Canada had been. No missing sleep for him anymore at least. 

The fundamental problem with watching figure skating is that it was, to a certain extend, somewhat boring. Zuko much prefered to skate himself, rather than seeing someone else do it, especially via a live stream. But at the same time, he really liked it a lot more than he used to when he was a child, for some reason. Back then he could barely sit through an hour of competition before turning it off. 

“You’re watching the Grand Prix of Helsinki?” His sister barged into the room again. _ Seriously, when will she learn to knock? _

“I am,” he said, keeping his voice unimpressed ase watched Aang, who was second after the short program, stepping on the ice, getting ready for his free skate. 

“Good,” Azula said, before opening the door again in order to leave. “Don’t get too fond of the Canadian boy,” she said before slamming the door. 

And that’s the first thing she had said about the whole “liking eachother’s posts on Instagram”... thing that was very much a thing now. Could’ve gone a lot worse. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

“I love gala exhibitions so much!” Aang laughed as he skated next to Sokka as the ice was lit up with disco lights. “They’re so much fun!” 

Galas were always nice after competitions, if you got to participate at least. It was a nice end of a competition, with some people choosing to skate to more of a deep song, showing of all of their abilities of interpreting music now there was no pressure of landing jumps, or some people, like Sokka, skated to fun songs, making everyone smile and laugh. 

“They are,” he agreed. 

“Hello, boys!” Of course Sokka could recognise Suki’s voice straight away. Another nice thing about galas: you get to see people you normally don’t often see, after the competition so without any stress. The banquets were still better for that, but galas were nice too. After all, not every competition had a banquet, and seeing skaters have fun on the ice is even more fun than seeing them have fun at a banquet. 

  
  


“ _ Suki _ !” They had seen each other this week of course, but still. With Suki training in Japan, so he barely ever saw her, and long distance friendships are hard. He was pretty fond of Suki, he had to admit. 

“Congrats to the both of you!” She smiled. Sokka had ended in first and Aang second, but Suki had also won in the women’s field. 

“You too! I really like your free skate this season!” It was quite powerful music, and suited her perfectly. Whoever’s choice it was really did her justice. Knowing her, it was probably her own music choice. 

“Thanks, I try,” she laughed. 

With both of his wins, Sokka was sure to qualify for the grand prix final. Aang still had no certainty with his second and third place, but there was a high chance. Zuko had only had one grand prix yet, but considering he won and considering his consistency there was a high chance they’d see each other at the final again too. 

“Yours is nice too!” Suki told him. Sokka had chosen a music that was pretty close to his heart for his, and he really liked it himself. Glad that others also apparently seemed to enjoy it, he said a quick “thank you.”

“And you,” she looked at Aang. “You’re doing really well for your first season in seniors! You podiumed on both grand prix!” 

Aang, humble as always, just said a, “beginner’s luck.”

~~

_ ZUKO _

“Ty Lee won NHK trophy,” his sister said during their practice a week later, more towards Mai than towards him. 

“That’s nice,” he replied before she could. 

“You didn’t watch?” Mai asked. In all honesty, Zuko had pretty much forgotten to watch NHK trophy. It was all distraction anyway, next week he’d have rostelecom cup and he really needed to win that. 

Maybe keeping tabs on other competitions  _ wasn’t _ really his thing after all. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but maybe he really did only want to somewhat watch the competitions Sokka was a part of. Just to see how his rival was doing of course. Isn’t that what Azula had wanted anyway?

“No,” he shook his head. 

“You really should watch skating more,” Azula said, narrowing her eyes. He knew what she was thinking.  _ ‘Oh, so you did watch the grand prix in Helsinki but not the one in Japan?’  _ He could almost hear the gears turning around in her head. 

Zuko ignored it. “She placed for the grand prix final then?” Knowing full well she did. 

“Yup,” Mai faintly smiled. “Suki and Ty Lee already placed. For men’s, Sokka already placed. Aang will probably place too. Stop pretending you don’t know this.”

There are only 6 spots for the final, but it didn’t matter. He would get there. And he’d win too. He’d have to fuck up pretty badly not to place, considering his opponents in Rostelecom cup. 

“We will place next week, won’t we?” Azula smirked. 

The grand prix final is a really big deal for every skater. Only getting there is already an accomplishment. But not an accomplishment good enough for them, or their father. Winning was the only option. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who might not know about the figure skating season, here’s some background: the senior skating season starts with a couple of challenger series competitions, and then follows the Grand Prix series. There are 6 GPs in total, one per week. Only the 6 people who placed best in each discipline (ladies/men/pair skating/ice dance) go to the Grand Prix Final, a couple of weeks after the last Grand Prix (begin december). A bit after that it’s European championships (january), then 4 Continents Championships (february) and then World Championships (march). This fic follows the 2018-2019 season, rather than the 2019-2020 season (some places for certain comps are different) because I began writing it last season. (Side note: during olympic season this changes a bit as the Olympics are in february, so 4cc would be in january as well)


	5. Rostelecom cup + IdF

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another shorter chapter, but the next one will be the Grand Prix final so a lot longer!

_ ZUKO _

Grand prix seasons are weird, because everything seemed to happen so fast. 7 competitions in 8 weeks? It’s a lot to keep up on, even if you yourself are only doing 3 at most. 

Rostelecom Cup in his home country was already the fifth competition of the series yet it feeled like the season only started last week. Between practice, college, and now apparently watching other competitions too there was very little free time. 

“I haven’t seen you skate live in so long!” His uncle said, genuinely looking excited, much like Zuko had been expecting. 

Iroh had a tearoom that did really well, and overall was pretty busy, but he would never pass up on watching a competition if it was in Russia. Especially not an important one like this. Especially not if Zuko competed.

Zuko wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he was somewhat glad his father was barely ever home, and never came to watch competitions anymore. He remembered when he was 8, just started competitions, with his mother on the sideline always loudly cheering for him. And then few years later she was gone. Since then, he wasn’t a fan of having any type of family supporting him live during competitions, but his uncle was okay, he guessed. 

“It’s been a while,” Zuko agreed, pushing those memories of his mother far away. Good things never came of thinking about these things right before a competition. 

Azula just sighed. “You better don’t bring him out of focus with your stupid proverbs and idioms, he needs to win this,” she rolled her eyes and walk away from the two. 

God, what is she doing? “Azula!” He tried yelling at her, but his uncle placed his hand on his shoulder. 

“It’s fine, she’s probably just nervous. And she wants you to do well,” his uncle smiled.  _ Nervous. Azula. As if.  _ Zuko didn’t say anything though. “You did well, in Italy and America. I watched the livestream!”

“It was alright, I’m going for two clean programs this competition,”  _ I will win this.  _

He didn’t have too much competition now, only Chan could top him if he skated clean and Zuko didn’t, and considering he won last grand prix, the chances of him not placing where pretty low but he still felt the tiniest bit of nerves. Skating on home ice is always a bit risky. With how popular his sister and him were to begin with, and the amount of Russian media there was today, and the amount of fans… well, it was a lot. Almost overwhelming. But at the same time, it was a major egoboost to see how many people support you. Well, until you start making a bunch of mistakes. Then the support can be gone rather quickly.

“I’m sure you will, nephew! Your sister too,” Iroh smiled. 

Oh, he had no doubt Azula would win, or even all that much doubt about himself. But what’s the good of winning if you didn’t put up the best possible performance either way? This wasn’t so much about winning as it was about skating clean. 

~~

He had skated clean, landing all of his jumps and good spins and a step sequence with deep edges, but last-minute layout changes due to pain in his ankle lowered the base value of his program. Nonetheless, even without the quad lutz, he had easily won the competition. Zuko was proud of himself for scoring this high on program components too. Maybe he was a bit overscored on the PCs, and he was sure angry skating fans would tell him that on Instagram and Twitter, but he could take that. After all, most fans do really care about the sport and genuinely just want fair judging, which he understood. And most of the time they were right too. Unless they were spewing straight up hate that is. 

His uncle and him were now watching the women’s short program. Mai and Azula as well as some other girls were doing their 6 minute warm up. 

“Looks like Mai isn’t going for that triple axel,” he told Iroh. It would’ve been too tricky anyway, she’s better off playing it safe. Only Ty Lee and Azula did good triple axels in the women’s field, but last week Mai had been landing it pretty consistently too. It’s too early to do it in competition though, and it’s underrotated half of the time. Some skaters got away with underrotating, some didn’t. It was a corrupt system, if Zuko was being honest. It’s not Zuko’s place to call out unfair judges at all, it would only cause people to think he is a bad sportsman, even if most of the time he  _ did _ actually benefit from the system (which he definitely didn’t love). Not to mention, if he did call out the ISU, it would be pretty much career-suicide. Skaters are pretty much powerless on that aspect. 

Either way, Mai was better playing it safe with this one. 

The announcer told the girls to get off the ice after the warm up, and Azula took her place in the middle of the ice, quickly looking around at all her fans while smirking, and then following the music perfectly from the moment it started like always. 

  
  


“Azula’s doing well,” his uncle said. Azula hadn’t missed a beat, and had had pretty much the perfect warm up, while Mai had a couple of falls, like most people during warm ups. 

The cheers from the crowd was what drove her, and this competition being in their own country did too. She started off strong, going straight for that triple axel, followed by two spins, a triple lutz-triple loop, her step sequence, a triple flip and another spin. A clean program, no stumbles or nothing, which was to be very expected. 

The crowd gave her a standing ovation as soon as she was done and erupted in cheers. “She’s a really strong skater,” his uncle noted. 

“She is,”  _ stronger than me, that’s for sure.  _ Maybe not literally with the jumps, but definitely everything else. 

“But so are you, nephew! The both of you are literally world record holders!” Iroh said, as if he could read Zuko’s mind. 

It didn’t matter who was stronger anyways, they were in different fields. They would never have to face each other. And maybe Zuko was glad of that. 

  
  


When her scores were announced, she crowd cheered even louder for a while, and Azula just smirked at the camera in the kiss and cry, clearly content with the scores and the cheering. 

“And now, representing China, Mai,” the announcer said when everyone had calmed down a bit. She looked focussed, ready to win, even if it was probably a lost battle to begin with. 

The music started, and the look on her face told Zuko she’d do well. 

  
  


In the end, she had landed everything. “That was good, right?” His uncle asked anyway, just to be sure. He wasn’t too knowledgeable about skating, but it was pretty clear. 

“Yea, her triple flip might go under review though, it looked like on the verge of short to me, but she did well,” he said as they waited for the judges to give their scores. 

“So, you and Mai…” his uncle began. 

“What about it?” 

“Are you two like…” he grinned and Zuko nearly choked on his spit. 

“What? Who gave you that idea?” Now he was confused. Were they acting like a couple? His uncle barely saw them ever together as it is! Hell, he didn’t even talk to Mai all that much out of practice and competitions. 

“It’s fine nephew, at your age-“

“We’re really not!” He said. Really, where the fuck did he get that idea? Mai was nice enough, sure but not in that way. Besides she was a bit too… female for him, but he definitely wasn't going to tell his uncle that. Or anyone for that matter. 

Still, him and Mai. What had they done to spark that kind of illusion? And why was everyone suddenly so interested in everyone he hung out with? Even his own uncle!

Iroh pressed his lips to a thin line for a second. “Alright, I believe you.”

“The scores for Mai: 76.06!” The announcer interrupted. It was a generous score and her flip definitely didn’t get called under, not the highest ever but definitely not bad either and it brought her in second place for now. 

~~

The free skate was an easy win, with all the other skaters having an absolute splatfest. It wasn’t like Zuko was happy when others did badly, as long as he skated well himself and he deserved the win, that’s what’s important, but still. It was kind of painful to see though, watching fall after fall after fall, seeing people disappointed in the kiss and cry after their performance. Even if Zuko wasn’t their friend, even if he didn’t like most of them and even if that was probably mutual, seeing people fail is never all that fun. 

“God, this gala practice is so boring,” Mai slumped against the borders of the ice rink later where they stood. “Why do we even need to go this?”

“When aren’t they?” Galas were a nice idea in concept, but more often than not boring. For him at least, other skaters seemed to be having plenty of fun. 

Azula narrowed her eyes. “We could make it more fun if we just-“

“We’re not gonna terrorize the competition,” Mai sighed. “Do you want a scandal? Do you want to lose your fans?”

“Who said anything about terrorizing? I just wanted to have a little bit of fun!” She smirked. 

“Yea well, let’s just get this over with,” Mai gave in. 

~~

A week later after the grand prix in France, which his sister easily won, the grand prix final qualifications were out too; for the men’s, Sokka, Aang, Chan, Jet, Haru and him had placed. For the women’s Azula, Mai, Katara, Ty Lee, Suki and Toph. So pretty much the people he had been expecting to place. It was only in two weeks and in Canada of all places but at least he had booked his plane ticket in advance, knowing how likely he was to place.  _ Sokka will have an advantage with the jet lag and all.  _ Whatever, no jet lag was going to keep him from his title. It’d be the third year in a row if he won this. 


	6. Grand Prix Final

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consistency in chapter length? Idk her.

_ ZUKO  _

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Azula asked as he was leaving the ice way earlier than originally planned. 

“What does it look like? I’m going home!” It wasn’t the end of the practice session yet and he knew that, his coach was pretty pissed about it too, but his ankle was getting sore and there were only a couple of days left before they had to leave to Vancouver. Sure, he needed the practice, but he needed to rest more or there would be no competition to practice for. Zuko wasn’t very prone to injuries, even with the amount of quads he did, but this wasn’t the time to tempt faith. 

As expected, Azula didn’t take this as an answer. “Do I need to remind you the most important competition of the season is in just a week?”

“Give him a break, Azula. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing,” Ty Lee chimed in.  _ I don’t know what I’m doing _ , he thought _ .  _

“She’s right, I know what I’m doing!” He said anyways, and Ty Lee smiled. “Also, some would argue the World Championships is the most important competition of the season.”

“Well, if you want that Canadian boy to kick your ass then go ahead, go back home!” 

_ Why can’t Azula just say his name? _ She keeps referring to Sokka as ‘that Canadian boy’ as if she doesn’t know his name, even though she very much definitely does. 

He ignored her, stepping of the ice anyways. Mai sighed, not wanting to meddle, and Ty Lee shouted a “see you tomorrow, Zuko!” Cheerfully as ever before he left. 

His mental space wasn’t good at the moment.  _ I need to win this, _ he chanted in his head. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

“I can’t believe we all qualified!” Aang said excitedly when they were taking off their skates. 

“I’m so happy we did though,” Katara agreed, standing up to do a couple of stretched. “But it’s going to be a tough competition.”

“This year, I will win,” Sokka then said. He’d add a ‘from Zuko’, but in reality, Jet was just as much of a threat. Technically speaking, the 6 people per category going to the final could be seen as some of the best skaters of the world, and they were all extremely good. Aang, Haru and Chan definitely weren’t off the radar to beat him if he did badly either. 

It didn’t matter who he was up against though, he would win. With his brand new quad loop that had been going better every competition, and if everything went well, there should be no problems. 

~~

The competition was in Vancouver, and luckily for him that was close to home, so he wasn’t too tired when he arrived at the hotel. 

“Don’t stay up too late!” Said Katara, as if he wasn’t a grown adult that could chose when he was going to sleep. 

“I won’t,” he said anyway, knowing he had an early morning practice again. It’s monday and thursday evening was the short program. There still was some time of course, and he knew the city well enough so he wouldn’t feel sad about not being able to go explore. He’d just spend his time resting, skating, and making his coursework. 

Katara and Aang went to the other elevator, them being on a different wing of the hotel for some reason, even though they booked their tickets at the same time. 

Sokka wasn’t  _ scared _ of elevators or something, obviously, he just prefered to take the stairs rather than possibly getting trapped in a metal cube that could potentially fall down. Still, he had a big bag with him with skates and costumes, and he wasn’t going up 11 floors with the stairs carrying that.  _ Although it would be a good practice _ , he tried to reason himself. 

Maybe he was more anxious than he was willing to admit. 

On the third floor, the lift stopped, and for a second Sokka hoped they had already reached the 11th floor, but no such luck. They had only stopped to pick up someone else. 

“Zuko! Hi!” He said as soon as the other walked into the elevator, not exactly why. Ignoring him would be awkward, wouldn’t it? 

“Hi,” he mumbled back, looking everywhere but Sokka.  _ Rude.  _

This was the first time they saw each other since Lombardia trophy, and Sokka wasn’t exactly sure what to make of the ‘liking each other’s Instagram posts’ yet. 

The longer they were both in the lift, the more awkward it got. And Zuko looked tired as fuck. The travel from Russia to here had been long probably, but Sokka didn’t want to rely on Zuko’s tiredness for his win. They were skaters, they both knew how to skate even when tired. Jetlags were part of the game. 

Silence and soft humming of elevator music filled the space, both saying nothing and staring at the floor. 

It got even more awkward when they both got off at the 11th floor, and walked through the whole hallway in silence, only to discover their rooms were right next to each other. 

“Uh, see you tomorrow,” Sokka said for some strange reason when he opened the door, and Zuko looked confusedly back at him.  _ He looks near dead with how tired he is.  _

“Tomorrow,” said Zuko, sounding tired and confused, before opening the door and walking inside. 

And at that moment, on a whim, Sokka made a plan to befriend Zuko before the end of the season. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to, and what prompted him to make this decision, but he would. Zuko just looked so alone all the time, and the whole  _ ‘we can’t be friends’ _ was still on his mind. There had to be some reason, right? He was just too intrigued, and Sokka would get to the bottom of it. He smiled at himself in the mirror. 

~~

Early morning practices were hell. Needed, but hell nonetheless. 

“Come on, focus!” His coach yelled at him across the ice rink. He was having an absolute splatfest, falling all of his jumps. The runthrough went terrible.  _ I just need to get used to the ice more _ , he told himself. The first practice on a new ice rink never went too well with him. 

From time to time, he glanced over to Zuko, who didn’t seem to be having the same problem as him at all. How did he still jump so well when looking like shit, no offence of course? Just looking at his jumps, you’d never be able to tell how tired he seemed. 

_ Focus Sokka, focus! _

The media taking pictures of the practice and fans cheering every time Zuko landed something weren’t all too helpful either. 

~~

Zuko was still taking off his skates, and everyone had left already. It occured to Sokka that perhaps the two of them were really slow at taking of their skates, considering this is the second time this season they were alone in the dressing room for said reason. 

“Hey Zuko?” Sokka asked anyways. Mission ‘Befriend Zuko’: started. Here was the plan; he’d tell a joke, the other would crack up, and bam, friends. Or something. Maybe. Hopefully. 

The other only sighed in response, clearly not wanting to engage in this conversation. “Yes?” 

“What do you call a fish with no eyes?” He waited for Zuko’s response, already grinning with his own joke. “... a fsh!” his own laughter bubbled up inside him, and he was definitely being too loud, but it was just too funny.  _ A fsh!!  _

Zuko however, didn’t seem to have found it that funny and just blinked at him. “What?” 

Maybe the ‘instant friends through jokes’ plan wasn’t the best after all. 

“A fsh!” He replied again, trying to keep his laughter down. Maybe Zuko just didn’t get the joke? English wasn’t his first language right? Sure, he seemed pretty fluent, but maybe- “you know, eyes,” he pointed at his eyes, “and an i,” he scribbled an i-shape in the air with his finger, “have the same sound and-“

“Don’t explain the joke to me!” Zuko snapped. “Do you think I’m stupid?” He looked angrily.  _ But it was just a joke? _ “I’m fluent in English, thank you very much!” 

Yikes, okay this wasn’t going too well. 

“No, I just wanted to break the ice-... I guess I should’ve waited that until after the competition! AH!” He laughed again, at the unintended pun he had just made. “Get it? Because we skate on ice-“  _ smooth one Sokka! _

“Seriously, how dumb do you think I am?” Zuko snapped again. Okay, this wasn’t going well at all. “Are you finished?” He then asked, grabbing his bag anyway. 

‘Zuko has no sense of humor’, he mentally wrote down for future reference. Absolutely none. 

“No! Wait!” Maybe he should find a new way of befriending Zuko because this whole joke thing wasn’t working. At all. Which was a real shame. “We can walk back to the hotel together I’ll be done in a couple of minutes!” 

That probably wasn’t going to work either, but he could try, right?

“What? No!” Zuko snapped again, before turning around and walking away anyway.  _ He’s pretty good at snapping at people.  _

Why had Sokka even decided to do this whole thing? Not only was Zuko a jerk, but he was one with terrible humor.  _ A fsh!  _

The worse it went, the more Sokka wanted to befriend him though, purely out of spite. To prove Zuko he was wrong. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

Sokka had been acting all weird, making  _ jokes  _ and  _ engaging in conversation  _ all. He was certain he just wanted to bring Zuko out of his focus, considering how badly the other’s practice had gone this morning and how well his own had gone. That’d be low though. Surely he wouldn’t? Zuko couldn’t shake a tiny voice, that sounded strangely a lot like his father, telling him to not trust Sokka. At all. 

“I know I say it every time we talk, but you worry too much,” Mai sighed anyway after he told her what had happened. She’s right, she did tell him that every time they spoke. She however wasn’t right about the ‘worrying too much’ part. His worrying is fully justified, if you asked him. 

They were sitting on her bed and she had to leave for practice in 30 minutes. He should leave her alone, let her get ready, but he was just so bored right now. And stressed, yea that too. And Mai didn’t seem to mind. She never was one to get stressed just because the people around her were. 

“Sokka seems like a… decent person,” she said. “I’ve seen worse, I guess.”

“Then why haven’t we talked before this season?” He replied. They’ve seen each other countless of times before during competitions. They barely ever even nodded at each other previously. 

“You don’t exactly have an ‘ _ please talk to me!’ _ aura going on here,” she was right, he didn’t, and it was for a good reason too. 

“Neither do you!” 

“But I’m not the one complaining about it,” she countered. 

_ Stupid Sokka.  _ “Well, we’re not going to be friends!” He said anyway. It sounded like he was being an angry kid, sure, but what else was he supposed to do?

She rolled her eyes. “Why not? Please Zuko, enlighten me about how Sokka is the worst person on this planet.” 

Did Mai really not get it? Hadn’t Azula complained to her about Sokka over the phone that one day anyway? 

“Well, if he wants to be my friend that badly, he can wait until the end of the competition,” he said, and she just rolled her eyes once again.

~~

He had gotten over his jetlag pretty quickly, and the short program was only near the evening so that gave him a full day to rest mostly and mentally prepare. He had to skate first too, which was nice. Sokka only had to skate third. 

“Good luck, Zuko!” Ty Lee yelled at him as he entered the rink, she herself sitting in split, already warming up even though the women skated after them. They were only with 6, so it didn’t take that much time anyway. 

“Thanks,” he quickly replied and put in his earphones, making sure no one except for his coach would interrupt him, and started to lightly jog around. 

He didn’t know when Sokka or the other guys had entered and started warming up, he had been so engrossed in his own thoughts, trying his very best to focus on the competition, but now they were standing before the little door to step on the ice, nerves were going through his body. 

_ I have to win this _ . 

_ I have to win this.  _

_ ~~ _

In the end, it wasn’t good. At all. He had fell on his lutz, wobbled on his axel, only just hung on to the combo. The spins and steps weren’t great either. He’d blame the nerves and the pressure, but he should know how to deal with them by now. He has dealt enough with them in the past. Really, the only one to blame was himself. Azula would probably scold him now if she wasn’t getting ready for her own competition. 

Zuko sat next to the rink, watching Chan have an even worse skate then he had.  _ It was gonna be one of those competitions.  _ He toyed with the dragon plushie one of his fans had thrown on the ice for him as Chan’s scores were announced, who apparently placed after him. Zuko felt kind of bad for the fans who had paid so much money for tickets, only to see some terrible skating. Hopefully the women’s, pair’s and ice dance would be better. 

Sokka looked focussed, and in form. In all honesty, he was a very charismatic person too, who could really wrap the judges around his finger and get high program components scores.

Sokka landed his triple axel, and then his quad salchow and his quad toe-triple toe combination, all with high GOE. Obviously, he went straight into first. He deserved it too. Zuko didn’t need a win when he didn’t deserve it. And he’d make it up in the free skate either way. 

Haru had a low base-value program, and it wasn’t anywhere near clean, so he scored even less than Zuko, but still more than Chan. 

Jet on the other hand had a clean skate, but not as high in program components and he took out the quad lutz and changed it to another quad salchow, so he placed right under Sokka. 

Aang had buckled under the stress of his first grand prix final. This competition was a big deal, and he was only 15, just standing there was an accomplishment. He got into last, but didn’t seem all that bummed. 

“I’m sorry about your skate,” Sokka suddenly said next to him. 

“No you’re not,” why would he be? The worst Zuko skated, the more chances of winning he had. And not only that, bad skates are something they’re all used to by now. It’s nothing new. Except if you’re Azula maybe. 

“You seem to think to know my thought, but you’re wrong,” He said. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Zuko stood up. He wasn’t in the mood for this. “Nothing I can’t make up tomorrow in the free skate.” 

If he skated clean tomorrow, he could still win. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

There’s no use over getting excited over winning the short program, the free skate can still change everything and he knew it, but he was still proud of his clean skate. 

For a second, he thought about going to sit next to Zuko, who was watching the women’s event right across the rink from where he sat, but that’d be weird. The other was already pretty pissed off about him saying sorry about his bad skate. Zuko apparently really thinks Sokka want him to fail. Why would he think that low of him? Sokka didn’t  _ think _ he’d look like that kind of person, but apparently he did. 

Sokka watched as Katara went on first, looking strangely calm. She skated clean and seemed happy with her points, even if her base value of the program had been lower than most of the other girls to begin with. 

Toph skated clean too, going right behind Katara. For being her first grand prix final, she did extremely well. 

Suki was more on the ground than on her feet, and it physically hurt Sokka to watch. He really hoped she hadn’t hurt herself with one of the falls. Her head hung in disappointment when the points were announced. 

Mai didn’t skate well either, only just placing above Suki. Where the other had looked disappointed, Mai just seemed a bit annoyed by the whole thing. 

Also, Sokka was getting more intrigued in Mai, Ty Lee and Azula too, along with Zuko. That whole friend group was a mystery to him. Mostly Zuko, but the others too. 

Azula was perfect, like always. Her consistency really blew him away sometimes. How can one person  _ always  _ skate clean? Sometimes she seemed more like a machine than a human, in the best way possible. When it comes to skating at least. 

Ty Lee did well too, especially her spins looked amazing with her flexibility, and she went right behind Azula. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

He had been right, everything was fixable by a free skate. In the end, he had skated completely clean, all the frustration had been changed into energy to skate with. Not to toot his own horn, but his jumps had been big and his spins had gone well. The steps and choreo sequence went as well as he could have hoped for. His program components had gone up too and he placed a personal best score. Pleased with his own result, he looked at the leaderboard for now. 

Chan and Haru were far behind him, and the other three still had to skate. 

~~

Aang didn’t have as much of bad skate as yesterday, but still wasn’t clean. Again, the boy didn’t seem too sad, placing right above the other two but behind Zuko. 

Jet fell his quad lutz and toe but everything else went really well, making him in second, right before Aang, for now, mainly because all of his jumps were fully rotated even when he fell. Or that is to say, he got no underrotation calls. 

Sokka stepped on the ice and Zuko could feel himself holding a breath. It didn’t matter, he had had a good skate just now, but winning was still the goal of course. He didn’t however, and would never, hope Sokka, or any of the competition, would fail. 

Depending on your opponent’s weaknesses is a bigger weakness on it’s own. 

Sokka landed his quad loop, and it was nice (although it did look a but under to Zuko, but the technical panel didn’t seem very strict today), but the tiny mistake on the spins costed him points. 

Watching Sokka in the kiss and cry, waiting for them to announce his points seemed like an eternity. 

In the end, Zuko won with 0.54 points to spare. 

_ Grand prix final champion for the third year in a row!  _ He lightly smiled and mentally patted his own back. His father would be pleased, maybe. Probably. Hopefully. If he even said anything about it that is. 

~~

Zuko looked around again, looking at all the banners that filled the rink. It was time for the medal ceremony now, and he watched as Jet and Sokka came closer to him, clearly deep in their own conversation. 

Jet had a lot of fans too, and the crowd loudly cheered as he stepped on the ice, taking his bows while his music was playing in the background. 

They cheered loudly for Sokka too, obviously, especially considering this is home ice for Sokka. Zuko watched as the other embraced Jet on the podium. 

Zuko was no exception on the cheering. The cheering and his own program music playing in the background gave him strength, and a bit of proudness was bubbling up inside him. 

“Congrats,” Zuko said, sticking out his hand for Jet to shake it. He wasn’t really the kind to hug people on the podium at all, and Jet and him definitely weren’t close enough for that. 

Jet simply took his hand, not having many emotions shown on his face. 

Sokka however seemed to have other plans. 

“Congrats,” Zuko said again, sticking out his hands to Sokka.

“This is a special occasion!” The other smiled, pulling him into a hug instead, pretty much shocking Zuko.  _ What the fuck? _ The crowd was cheering even more, as if they had just witnessed the best thing in their entire lives, and Sokka lightly patted his back, while Zuko could do nothing else but just stand there, and then snap out of it before he climbed on that first place. 

~~

The fans had a new tradition: giving skaters flower crowns after the podium, right before the press photos or before the posed fanphotos. 

Zuko had never taken his before, not quite sure if it was weird or not, and also a bit because he didn’t know what his father would say about that. But now Sokka was skating around with his flower crown proudly on top of his head, looking so happy, thanking the fans, getting excited over the blue flowers and even Jet had accepted his and well, who was Zuko to say no if everyone else was gonna do it? And it it made the fans happy…

He didn’t want to think about what his father might say about it, but everyone around him seemed happy with him wearing it, and it was kinda fun and cute too. These fans spent a lot of time making them for all the skaters after all. 

So there they stood, him with a Russian flag in the middle, right from him Sokka with his Canadian flag and left from him Jet with his American flag, all three wearing flower crowns in red, blue and green respectively. Zuko let out the smallest smile. 

~~

Okay but,  _ why the fuck wasn’t Sokka wearing a shirt? _ To be honest, he had never seen Sokka’s gala exhibition program this year, skipping the live streams for the galas every time, so he really wasn’t prepared to see him half naked on the ice. At all. 

Seriously, does this program really require to be skated shirtless? And why did Zuko even care so much? And  _ why the fuck  _ was his mouth dry? 

He couldn’t look at this anymore and turned around, looking where Mai was. He had to get out of this situation right away. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

Not winning the final was a bummer, but he couldn’t really show it. Being second at an event like this is already a prestation on its own and he knew that. All in all, he had skated both programs almost clean, and he did his best so that’s something. 

Katara had gotten in third, and Aang in fourth, which were also good placements. 

They were at the banquet, which in his opinion was always fun, to see everyone in a more formal setting, wearing suits and nice dresses. 

“It’s fine Suki, you got here that’s already not something a lot of people can say!” He tried cheering her up. She hadn’t skated well at all, and had placed last. Even if there were only six people, being last still sucked obviously. 

“You’re right,” she agreed, closing her eyes. 

Sokka scanned over the room, spotting the table with Azula, Ty Lee, Mai and Zuko, and one empty space at their table.  _ Jackpot.  _ If Zuko didn’t want to be friends before the competition, maybe he would now. The hug had been dumb maybe, but it was also a gesture a lot of people did on podiums anyway, so it was no big deal. Not to him at least. 

“Be right back,” he announced to his own table and strode over to the other. 

The fact that Zuko had taken the flower crowns from the fans still surprised him. Until the previous competitions, most men didn’t take theirs, mostly only the women and some of the pair skaters and ice dancers. But Sokka appreciated the flower crowns, and his fans seemed so happy and proud when they wore them, so he had taken them from the beginning. Even Jet had eventually buckled and taken his, making the fans even prouder. The crowd however really went wild when Zuko took his and put him on. It was kind of adorable. Not that Sokka thought of Zuko as adorable. 

“Well hello there,” he sat down on the chair before anyone could even say something, smiling bright. “Sokka,” he said, as if people didn’t know that. 

“Hi Sokka!” Ty Lee smiled brightly, waving at him, and Mai just kind of didn’t react. 

Azula and Zuko however seemed less impressed. 

All in all, it was what he was expecting. 

“What are you doing here?” Azula asked, narrowing her eyes a bit, as if he could attack her any second. 

“Well,” he leaned back on the chair. “You four are always together and never speak to everyone, so I thought I’d come to say hi.”

It sounded stupid now he said it out loud, and offensive at that, but he was already too far in this plan to stop now. But he really should work on not saying things that could offend people, like saying they don’t have friends or any other variation of that statement. 

“Are you and Zuko friends?” Ty Lee then asked. 

“Well-“

“No, we are not,” Zuko said firmly.  _ Seriously Zuko? We like each other’s Instagram posts and everything!  _ Why couldn’t they just be friends?

By this point, Sokka almost felt like he looked desperate, and frankly, maybe giving up wasn’t the worst idea ever. Isn’t he just making a fool out of himself like this? 

Azula crossed her arms, slight smirking. “Interesting,” she said. “Well then, hi Sokka. Good skate you had put out there.”

Why was Katara always complaining about Azula’s rudeness? She seemed fine towards him. 

“Thanks, you too,” he said simply and smiled again. 

“So, any plans for coming competitions?” She then asked. 

“Azula-,” Zuko tried to interrupt, but she wasn’t having it. 

“Don’t be rude, Zuko!” 

Sokka decided to just answer her original question. “Well, I have 4 Continents Championships in februari, Worlds in march. Oh, and I’m doing World Team Trophy too, if Canada sends me at least. And if Canada is still one of the 6 biggest federations within the ISU.”

World Team Trophy was a cool competition really, countries competed in teams against each other and there were prices for the country that cheered each other on the most and it was just a nice end of the season, and so much fun too. Individual placing didn’t matter and it was a no-stress competition. 

“I see,” she then said, and Mai sighed and looked over at Zuko. 

By the end of the night, he had talked more to Ty Lee and Azula than to Zuko and Mai. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

“What the fuck was that about?” He asked his sister as soon as they were alone. Did Sokka really think it would be a good idea to just sit at their table for a whole evening? Zuko was kind of lost about this whole thing. And Azula didn’t look like she had any problems with it either. 

“I should be asking you that question,” she said. “I didn’t know you made a friend!” 

“I didn’t!” he defended himself. 

“Right,” she smirked. “He seemed pretty eager to be your friend though.”

Then, Zuko came to a realization. “You were trying to manipulate him!”

“Do you really think that low of me?” She said, not exactly looking hurt by his statement. “You better watch out with this whole thing, Zuko.”

He wasn’t sure what he was even supposed to look out for. 

“And what was that whole flower crown thing about anyway?” She then asked. 

What? Was wearing one of those things a crime now? Okay to be fair, he  _ had _ somewhat expected her to say something about it. “You, Katara and Ty Lee took yours! Why couldn’t we wear ours?” 

Azula pressed her lips in a thin line, and for a second she looked like she was about to leave. “You know, sometimes I do just genuinely want to look out for you,” she finally said before turning around and leaving for real. Yea, it had sounded sincere, but Zuko didn’t know how much he believed of it. 


	7. European Championships

_ ZUKO  _

European Championships was kind of a weird competition, because most of his friends didn’t represent any european countries. All of them did 4 Continents, but he and his sister were stuck at the European Championships. The only one he somewhat knew and was somewhat a threat to him was Haru, who represented France. 

Still, he wasn’t exactly planning on actually talking to Haru. He was however, very much planning on beating Haru, but that wouldn’t be too hard either. 

It’s been a bit over a month since the grand prix final, and things have been weird, to say the least. 

When the pictures of the flower crowns came out from the last victory ceremony, his (but also Sokka’s and Jet’s) fans went pretty much wild over them. He wasn’t big on pictures of himself, but he had to admit he had saved some of them on his own phone. Again, just to appreciate the facts that his fans spent time making them of course. His father had been angry about it when he got home, saying he was lucky he won the competition but that doesn’t mean he has to go around wearing “stupid flowers”, as his father called them, together with some other derogatory terms. Nothing he hadn’t heard before. But at least after that everything pretty much calmed down. 

Another thing that had happened in the past month: his fans started being even more suspicious about him and Sokka, especially after that hug on the podium. Zuko wasn’t sure what they were suspicious about, but they definitely commented on all of his posts with “ _ wow Sokka liked it again! _ ” And stuff like that. Maybe deep down he did know what it was about, but he definitely wasn’t about to admit that to himself. 

And maybe Zuko had started liking more and more posts of Sokka as well. Not all of them, the guy literally uploads every day,  _ where does he get the time? _ , but still a good portion. 

The weirdest thing of all, a couple of weeks back, Sokka had DM’ed him. The conversation went something like this;

**Sokka: ** hi!!!

**Zuko: ** What do you want?

**Sokka:** nothing! I just wanted to wish you good luck with European Championships!

**Zuko: ** okay. 

Because what else did he have to say? This whole thing was weird. It almost seemed like Sokka was actually making a real, genuinely efford to befriend Zuko for real, without any underlying reasons. But why would he even do that? And if he wanted to befriend Zuko before, he surely wouldn’t now with how he’s been acting this whole time. It wasn’t even that close to European’s to begin with! He had sent that about more than a week prior. 

Maybe Sokka was right, maybe it was a bit strange he barely had any friends in the skating world, considering for how long he has been competing. 

Zuko was however still innerly torn on what to do with the Sokka matter. 

What would his uncle say? “ _ Zuko, you need to hang out with people more! Make friends! *insert some proverb here*!” _ Zuko was never that good at remembering proverbs. 

Okay, but what about Azula?  _ Don’t be stupid, don’t lose your focus.  _

Mai would probably say another “ _ you worry too much _ ” and Ty Lee would probably just be excited over the concept of new friends. 

Why did Ty Lee even always hang out with them? She was a very social girl, it was a miracle she didn’t bounce around between the different friend groups in the skating world constantly. Maybe Azula had something to do with it, he didn’t know. 

Either way, it was weird and he didn’t know what to do about it. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

“You ready for 4 Continents?” Katara asked after a tough practice. 

“We still have a couple of weeks,” he said, not really answering her question. 4 Continents would be fine, probably. World Championships in march is what he was really worried about. Still, everything was possible at 4 Continents too. Just because his biggest ‘rival’ wasn’t doing the competition didn’t mean it would be an easy win. The others could also easily beat him. 

“It’ll be fine,” said Aang. 

~~

There was no way he was walking up at 4AM just to watch the European Championships. He loved skating and watching skating but come on, 4AM? Yea no.  _ Stupid timezones.  _

Sokka debated whether he should send Zuko another ‘good luck’ DM or not. The last time they talked wasn’t too successful. It was dumb for him to even try this much, it probably came across as desperate or something. But he had tried too much already and wasn’t going to give up now Zuko was finally cracking. He  _ knew  _ Zuko was cracking. In the end, he send something anyway. 

**Sokka: ** good luck in the short tomorrow!

**Sokka:** and your sister too! 

Or was it tomorrow already for Zuko? Whatever, he was too tired to properly calculate the time zones and he got the point across. 

_ God, i must really come across as desperate.  _

~~

_ ZUKO _

Did Sokka really sent him another good luck message? Maybe it was the fact that Zuko had barely slept last night, or the stress of having to finish his coursework by the end of the week paired with the stress of the competition, but this time he sounded less pissed off in his reply. 

**Zuko: ** thanks!

He wasn’t going to tell his sister about it though, even if Sokka had also mentioned her. If he really wanted to wish her good luck, he could send her a text himself if he really wanted. 

~~

The warm up went as good as he had hoped and all the other skaters left the ice, as he was first to skate in the group.

“Come on, Zuko, focus!” his coach told him, the same like before every competition. Zuko just nodded, rolled his shoulders a couple of times and turned around, skating to the middle of the rink.  _ Come on quad lutz! _

Sometimes, the couple of seconds where you stand on the ice, in begin position, waiting for the music to start seemed to last like ages. But not today, no today he was ready and focussed, and the music seemed to start almost straight away. 

He felt himself go to his first triple axel, and then quad lutz. His lutz had gone so well, he decided on the spur of the moment to make that his combo jump instead and did a flawless triple toe after it. His coach would kill him for changing his program’s lay out like that, right in the middle of a program, without even thinking about it, but it didn’t matter. 

In the end, it had been a good decision anyways, as he fell on his last jump, which would’ve been a combination jump if he hadn’t changed it. Not that he knew that in advance, but still. 

“Don’t change your program like that!” his coach scolded him anyway.

Zuko wasn’t having it. “It was a good decision, with the fall on the loop and all. Otherwise I wouldn’t have a combo jump. You know how many points I’d have lost then?”

“I don’t care. don’t do it again,” his coach said, but Zuko truly didn’t care. 

He still got a generous score though. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

The first thing Sokka did that morning was going to the site of the ISU, looking up the results from the men’s program. 

“Quad lutz-triple toe?” he asked himself. Well, that was new. Sokka was pretty sure he had never seen Zuko do that one before. Shame for the quad toeloop though. Zuko had still won by a landslide. The protocols looked a bit weird and all over the place, like always. Some judges still seemed to think GOE is completely subjective, even when there are pretty clear rules on the matter. Either way, he looked up a video of Zuko’s skate, desperately wanting to see the 4Lz3T combination. 

It was… huge. And beautiful. A really nice combination that deserved +3 GOE at least, maybe not higher because the set up was pretty long, but definitely a perfect jump otherwise. Okay, now he was getting a bit nervous. 

He then checked the live results of the women’s skate, who had only started off now. If he didn’t have practice in an hour, he’d look for a livestream, but his own skating still came first. 

For a second, Sokka debated whether he should send Zuko a ‘well done!’ text, but he didn’t want to be too clingy either. He also decided against a ‘good luck in the free skate!’ text. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

“Why did you change your program like that?” Azula asked that evening. They were sitting in her hotel room, bored as ever. Really, Zuko should be working on his course work but he was too worn out from the competition. 

“Are you going to scold me too?” he groaned and let himself fully flop on the bed. “Don’t worry, coach already did that!” 

“Actually, no I wasn’t,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I was just wondering if there was a strategic reasoning behind it. In the end it was a good call, with the fall and all.”

“I know! I told him that too!” he said in a frustrated tone. Zuko hated getting scolded for these things, even if he had to admit it was just a spur of the moment thing, nothing strategical behind it, and it could’ve gone so much worse. it wasn’t like he could exactly tell which jumps he’d fall in advance. 

“How’s Sokka?” she then asked, her voice sounding softer than normal. He know what game his sister was playing, and he wasn’t going to fall for it. 

“How should I know?” 

“I don’t know, maybe you two are in contact or something?” Azula tried. 

He definitely wasn’t going to say anything about Sokka’s texts. “Nope,” he shook his head.

~~

The rest of the competition was kind of boring, to be honest. His sister and him both won the free skate by quite a bit. The gala was mostly boring too. Zuko kind of wished Ty Lee or Mai were there at least, even if he didn’t want to admit it.    
  
Sokka didn’t sent him anything anymore either. Zuko wasn’t too sure how to feel about that. 

What he did do however, was like Zuko’s Instagram posts again. That was a thing they were doing now, and even though Azula definitely knew about it and seemed not too happy with it, she hadn’t even made a whole scene about it. 

Zuko posted his usual post-competition picture of him on the podium with the caption “Thank you all for supporting me!” like always and closed the app to go to sleep. 

~~

When he woke up, he first noticed a text from Mai. That definitely grabbed his attention, considering she normally didn’t text him in the middle of the night. In fact, she didn’t ever text him without a reason in general. 

**Mai:** Your fans are kind of going crazy on social media. 

Zuko blinked a couple of times, confused about the text he has gotten, his eyes getting sore from looking at such bright light after just having woken up. 

**Zuko:** ???

**Mai: ** Just go look.

Does she even ever sleep? She sent that first message only a couple of hours ago! And they were in the same timezone too. Either way, he opened his Instagram app, not knowing what to expect. 

There indeed were… A lot of comments on his new post. The first one was a pretty normal one, from Ty Lee. 

**Ty_Leexx: ** You did well!  _ \- 15 likes _

The second one however, was probably the cause of this whole thing. 

**SokkaOnIce:** Well done!  _ \- 203 likes _

What was more worrying however, was the 175 comments under that. Zuko groaned. Really Sokka, really? Maybe Zuko should’ve just replied to his messages better, then this wouldn’t have happened. 

**Zukos_right_blade:** omg!!!

**Zukos_right_blade:** guys!!

**3A_legend:** you were right! It’s so real?

_ What is so real?  _ Zuko was mildly, okay no, extremely confused.  _ Has Sokka not noticed how the fans are reacting? _ Maybe Sokka knows more about this whole fan thing in general, as he is way more active on social media. 

**For.love.and.sokka: ** Guys, chill out. Y’all don’t react like this when Ty Lee replies to his posts!

**3A_legend:** but that’s different! they are friends!

**InaBauerThings:** Are you all gonna react like this every time Zuko posts? I really hope he doesn’t see this, y’all are delusional!

_ Delusional about what?  _ Listen, it was still early okay, his brain wasn’t working at full capacity yet. He really didn’t understand what this was all about whatsoever. And again, why did everyone care? 

**3A_legend:** whatever, I’m gonna write another fanfic

_ What the fuck is a fanfic?  _ Zuko decided he very much didn’t want to know right now and closed the app quickly. He did reply to Mai though. 

**Zuko: ** I don’t know how to react to this

**Mai: ** neither do I 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to be sure - this chapter obviously isn’t meant to make fun of fans, fan culture or fan artists (obviously). I do however think people could be a bit more mindful when it comes to real people, especially with comments on their social media (and maybe this doesn’t happen THAT much with skaters, but it does often happen with all types of celebrities), which is why I included that in the chapter (and to serve as a plot device of course). It’s definitely not a personal attack to fanfic writers or any of that.


	8. 4 contintents championships

_ SOKKA  _

  
  


“Sokka! Hi!” Ty Lee yelled as soon as she saw him across the hotel lobby, grabbing Mai’s wrist to run toward them, which Sokka wasn’t really expecting. Mai herself seemed a whole lot less excited than Ty Lee, but that wasn’t as surprising. 

Katara looked a bit weirdly at her brother, but Aang just seemed excited too, of course he was. 

“Hi!” Aang said before he even could, even if he wasn’t the one being addressed directly. 

“It’s nice to see you again,” she said, almost pulling Sokka into a hug before Mai could hold her back. “And you two too!” She said towards Katara and Aang then, as if all of them were the best of friends. 

“Ty Lee…” Mai began. 

“Yea! The banquet was nice last time, wasn’t it?” he began, though Mai probably had a different opinion on that. Or maybe she didn’t, but she just didn’t like showing it. 

“Jup!” She beamed, before the other pulled on her wrist again. 

“We really need to check in,” Mai finally said. “See you later.”

“Alright,” Ty Lee waved at them before leaving too. “Good luck!” 

As soon as the other two were out of earshot, his sister turned to him. 

“What was that all about?”

Aang however, didn’t seem to take up on the problem, “They’re nice, aren’t they?” 

“We spoke at the banquet,” Sokka explained, knowing it wouldn’t be enough. 

“Yes, I’m aware,” she narrowed her eyes. “You were gone for the whole evening.” 

“I just want to befriend everyone,” he said, even though it was only partially true. 

What? Zuko is a part of ‘everyone’. 

Katara was silent for a moment, eyeing him. “Whatever, it’s your life. Just don’t do anything you’ll regret,” but her voice still sounded like she wasn’t going to drop it anytime soon. 

And Sokka knew it was because she cared about him, he does, but he couldn’t help but to be annoyed at the utter lack of confidence in him when it came to this.

~~

It wasn’t long before Suki was knocking at his hotel room door. 

“Well, well, well, look who we have here!” She giggled and wrapped him up in a hug. 

“It hasn’t been  _ that _ long!” Sokka protested, but returned the hug anyway. It still felt like quite a while. “Since the Grand Prix Final.”

She looked tired, and it showed she had just been on a longhaul flight, but she still looked beautiful as always. 

“It hasn’t,” she agreed, “but I barely saw you during the banquet, and well…” 

And  _ of course  _ she would bring that up. “Don’t you worry, you’re still one of my favourites,” he teased. 

“Of course I am,” Suki giggled. “Ty Lee seems to like you though. Azula seemed to like you too, but you can never be too sure about her. But something tells me it wasn’t Ty Lee you’re going for here.” 

She went to sit on the bed as Sokka finally shut the door. The bed was plain, like most hotel rooms, but more spacious than most of the ones he had been in. They’re athletes in a not-too-popular sport and the money was limited, so he never expected too much from the hotel rooms.

Sokka sighed. “Did Katara send you?”

“No, this is pure personal interest, but everyone’s dying to know how Zuko and you are suddenly getting along. Surely you know that?” 

Sokka  _ did  _ know that. He had seen his comment section on Instagram and Twitter, it was rather hard to miss. But the fans could think what they want, it hardly mattered to him. He didn’t have much say in the reaction of his fans anyway, much less Zuko’s. 

Briefly he wondered if Zuko had seen it all, with how little he uses social media. And briefly he wondered if that is one of the reasons he’s still keeping his distance. He barely could blame the guy.

“Listen, this is gonna sound weird but, I have made it my mission to befriend Zuko this season. Don’t ask why, I barely know myself. It was more so an impulse than anything else but I’m getting somewhere now,” was his explanation. “Don’t you think it’s a bit strange how he and his friends behave during competitions is a bit weird? How they’re always on their own?”

“Ty Lee is nice,” she crossed her arms. “She has tons of friends. You could’ve chosen Azula or Mai to befriend too-“

“Yea but Zuko and I see each other much more than the others,” and if he was being perfectly honest, Mai and Azula scared him a bit. 

“I’m not here to tell you what you can and cannot do,” she let out a small smile. “Curiosity killed the cat, and I was just curious, that’s all.”

“You and everyone else it seems,” he smiled back. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

The rink was empty, with Ty Lee, Mai, his coaches, and some others gone to the competition. Sure, there were some other novice and junior skaters with bright futures on the ice, but he was pretty much stuck with his sister. 

In a couple of hours the men’s skate started, and he debated whether he should send something to Sokka. 

On one hand, the other had sent him something twice already and it was the only polite thing to return the favour. On the other, Sokka probably didn’t expect him to either way and if he did, it’d probably become a thing. 

But perhaps it’s already a thing. Zuko wasn’t sure what kind of thing, but definitely a thing. 

This whole game had been lasting long enough, Sokka’s been making an effort since Lombardia Trophy in september, and it was february already, Zuko started feeling bad about it. Maybe Sokka did genuinely want to be Zuko’s friend. He did spent most of the banquet at their table, even when Zuko and Mai mainly ignored him. Mai not so much for the same reason as him, simply because she didn’t seem to care much, but still. 

No one had to know. And if they did know then well, is there really that big of a problem with two skaters becoming friends?

  
  


~~

_ SOKKA _

**Zuko:** good luck

Sokka had been staring at his phone for a good minute now. Maybe he was making more progress in this ‘befriend Zuko’ plan than he thought he was himself. For someone who no one ever sees interacting with anyone except for his sister and her two friends, not on social media or in real life, this seemed like a big deal. A really big deal. Unless Zuko secretly was a big social butterfly after all, but he doubted that. 

**Sokka: ** thanks! :D

He couldn’t dwell on this now though, he had to go to the rink to compete in only a couple of minutes. Sokka pushed the whole Zuko-thought far away to get into competition mode. 

~~

“You’ve been on a roll this season,” said Jet after the short skate. Sokka had skated clean putting him in first, and Jet had a tiny stumble and still kept out his quad lutz out of his program, placing him second. After that, it was Aang, and in fourth was Chan. Behind him, a bunch more kids Sokka wasn’t too aware of. 

“Jup,” Sokka said. It wasn’t a bad season by any means, two of his international competitions he had won and two had placed him second. 

“I think you have a real chance at beating Zuko at worlds!”

“We all have a chance at beating Zuko at worlds, we’re all pretty close in points,” Sokka replied. Okay, maybe not  _ all _ , but Jet was definitely close too. He didn’t want to think about worlds yet, nor did he want to think about beating anyone in specific, he just wanted to win in general. Still, there’s no reason to go on about that now, this competition wasn’t even finished. 

Jet just turned around, saying, “well, if you’re gonna be all humble about it,” before leaving. 

Sokka wasn’t sure what to take away from this conversation. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

Sokka had skated well, both in the short and the free, winning the competition. In the women’s field Ty Lee won, with Mai being second and Katara third. 

Zuko scrolled through his Instagram, and because he was curious and bored, and because he didn’t follow too many people so his feed was pretty empty, he clicked on the #4continents hashtag. 

The first couple of pictures were from the women’s victory ceremony and the fan pictures afterwards. The flower crowns were apparently still a thing, even though they weren’t at the European Championships, and Ty Lee was absolutely beaming, wearing a pink one. Katara looked rather excited too, big smile on her face, wearing a deep blue one that matched her outfit. Mai on the other hand was wearing a black and white one and was only smiling lightly, but Zuko knew her enough to know she did appreciate the flowers, especially in that color. And a light smile was already a lot for her. She did love her fans and the sport, he knew that. All three of them were holding up their countries flag’s behind their backs with their arms stretched out. 

The next video was of Aang, Sokka and Jet laughing on the podium, Sokka motioning the other two to stand on the number one spot with him for the pictures. 

Another scroll downwards revealed a picture of the previous three, now with the flower crowns. Aang looked excited as ever, wearing a light blue one, and a Thai flag draped around his shoulders. Jet was wearing a green one, with an American flag he held open behind his back. He had a smirk on his face, very Jet-like. 

Sokka was smiling widely, almost beaming as much as Ty Lee had been, wearing a light blue flower crown and Canadian flag draped around his shoulders. He looked so happy. 

Zuko closed the app. 

~~

Okay so maybe he was watching the gala exhibition this time.  _ No, not because of shirtless Sokka. That’d be weird.  _ Just, out of interest. Or something. Whatever, he could do with his time what he wanted, it was his life. And he wasn’t about to admit anything at all, not even to himself. 

But damn, was it Sokka’s decision to go shirtless? He couldn’t really  _ blame  _ the guy for doing so with his physique, but still. 

During the finale, when Sokka had finally managed to get a shirt somewhere, him, Katara, Aang, Ty Lee, and Mai stood close to each other, talking. Well, Ty Lee mostly seemed to be the one talking. Suki skated towards them and Ty Lee pulled her into the group straight away. Sokka was laughing widely, and even Mai sometimes faintly smiled. 

_ Maybe he really is working himself into this friend group.  _ Maybe this was never about only Zuko in the first place. Maybe Zuko had been stupid to even think so. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

While Mai was still somewhat scary to him, she also seemed nice enough. She didn’t say too much when all of them were talking together, but she did stay behind for a minute longer, sizing up Sokka for a good few seconds, before saying “maybe you’re not  _ that  _ bad,” and leaving without another word. 

Sokka took it as a compliment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No I don't ever shut up about the flower crowns because the the best thing to have happened to figure skating in the past few years. Big shout out to all the fans going to competitions and making these beautiful flower crowns for the skaters!


	9. World championships

_ ZUKO  _

“I’m so excited for all of you to be in Japan!” Ty Lee loudly said on the airplane, so Zuko and Mai, who sat in front of her and Azula, would hear it too. Not only was the World Championships in Japan, it was in Saitama, her hometown. Zuio had to give it to her, being this excited to perform in her hometown, in  _ Japan _ , literally the heart of figure skating, for a world championship nonetheless. Most people would be too nervous to function, but not her. 

“You’re acting like we’ve never been in Japan before,” could hear his sister scoff behind him.

Azula and Ty Lee talked a bit more about Japan, while Mai said something a bit more quietly to him. “I spoke to Sokka at 4 Continents,” she began, trying to keep her voice quiet. She too knew it’s better if Azula did not hear this. If you asked Zuko, she shouldn’t have started talking about this on the plane anyways. “He seemed pretty serious about the friend thing. He’s not  _ that  _ bad.”

“I know,” in the past month, Sokka and Zuko had spoken a grant total of 4 times, over Instagram’s direct messages. Things like “hey”, “hey”, “practice going well?”, “yea you?”, “yup”, “cool”. 

It was more awkward than he’d like to admit, but it was also more  _ conversation _ than he would like to admit. And one time, he was the one to initiate it, but that he definitely wasn’t about to admit. 

~~

“Zuko!” Sokka almost yelled when they saw each other at the rink.  _ Why is he this excited? _ Frankly, Zuko was exhausted from the long flight, and Sokka’s must’ve been even longer. 

“Hi,” he didn’t know what else to say. This whole friend thing was weird, and he wasn’t even too sure they qualified as friends already. Let’s be real, probably not. 

“So, uh, you doing well?” Sokka sounded awkward now too, and started tying his skates faster. They had to be on the ice in five minutes after all. Zuko silently cursed himself for making this awkward. 

“I guess,” Zuko shrugged, taking out a screwdriver to attend to his blades. Stupid screws keep falling out. “Tired,” he then said. “And I need new skates after worlds,” he added for no reason. Casual conversations, right? That’s what friends do, right? “There are getting old. I’ve never been very good at wiping them off before putting them in my bag and the wood is rotting.”

Skates were a comfortable topic to talk about. Nothing too personal, and something they both were quite knowledgeable about. 

Sokka took one second to look over at his skates and said, “Are you changing to Edeas? Everyone’s been using Edea Pianos lately…” Ah yes, the very dreaded topic of type of skates. 

Maybe skates  _ weren’t  _ a comfortable topic after all. 

This was actually something Zuko had really strong opinions on. Something he had discussed with half of his rinkmates. “I’m aware,” he said, noting that Sokka himself did in fact have Edea Pianos. “And no, they are terrible. I had them for two months over the summer and I had nothing but injuries. So no, Risport it is,” it came out more passive aggressively than he meant to, but frankly, he was tired of everyone pushing them damn Edea skates on him. 

Not that Sokka had pushed it, he merely asked. 

But still. 

Zuko wasn’t very good at keeping chill over some things. 

“They work fine for me,” Sokka shrugged. “And for lots of other people.”

This is what you get from complaining about rotting wood. That plastic might be the only good part about them skates. 

“Well, definitely not for me.” They worked for Azula and Mai and Ty Lee and apparently Sokka and pretty much the entire skating world, but they didn’t for him, Goddamnit! 

And then, Zuko realized. “Uhm, sorry if that came off a bit too strongly,” he then quickly said. He shouldn’t be apologizing. Azula wouldn’t have. Mai wouldn’t have either, probably. But it was weird otherwise. Or something. 

“Hey, it’s fine!” Sokka assured him, tying the final knot in his laces. “If it works, it works right?” He stood up. “Well, see you after practice!” And he winked.  _ Winked!  _ What the fuck was this all about? And maybe, just maybe, Zuko’s cheeks went a bit pink. But ice rinks are cold, so it’s easy to blame it on that. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

It was both weird and not weird, talking to Zuko. But he couldn’t think about that now, not during practice. 

This was the world championships, and he couldn’t get distracted. Sincerely, he hoped he didn’t distract Zuko either. 

~~

“Hey do you maybe like, want to come to diner with us tonight?” He asked after practice. From what he’d seen, Zuko had had a rather good practice. He himself however, not so much, but he never did well the first practice in a new ice rink. By now, he was used to it. 

Zuko hesitated for a few second. “Who is ‘ _ us’ _ ?” 

“My sister, Aang, Suki. Maybe Toph too. Some of Suki’s friends maybe too,” there was no way Zuko was about to say yes, but he could try. “Yea, definitely some of Suki’s friends.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Zuko trailed of. It didn’t seem like he was saying it because of the people joining them, but more so in general.  _ We can’t be friends.  _

He couldn’t push Zuko, he knew that much, or they’d be back to the start. If they weren’t still standing at the start at least. Sokka wasn’t sure, but he definitely wouldn’t push. Definitely not before the competition. “Alright,” he said. “It was worth a try, right?” 

“Right,” Zuko looked back down at his skates, untying them faster. “Thank you,” he said so quietly, Sokka thought he might imagined it. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

The fact that he didn’t want to go with Sokka and his friends to dinner wasn’t only because the whole situation would be awkward, no it had a tiny bit to do with it but it wasn’t the main reason anyways. 

He had promised Ty Lee to come with her, and Azula and Mai had too, because she just seemed so excited about this whole thing of them being in japan. In Saitama. If he had cancelled that last minute, Ty Lee would be upset. Not that he cared or something. Furthermore, Azula would ask questions, and he wasn’t ready for more questions. 

What they hadn’t anticipated, or at least Zuko definitely hadn’t, was the fact that apparently, Ty Lee’s version of ‘going out in Saitama with some of my Japanese friends’ had been them hanging out with Suki. 

And with Suki came Katara, Aang, and Sokka. 

In hindsight, he should’ve known. Suki skated for team Japan, just like Ty Lee did. Of course they are friends. And Sokka had said “some of Suki’s friends” after all. 

Mai threw a glance at him when she saw the other group approach. Azula smirked, with that look in her eye. Zuko wasn’t entirely sure what that look meant this time, but he knew it wasn’t gonna be good. 

“Guess we are getting dinner after all!” Sokka smiled brightly for some reason as he saw him, and Zuko sincerely hoped Azula hadn’t heard that. 

She did.

“You asked him for dinner?” She turned towards Sokka. 

“Uh yea?” He sounded unsure, like he started realizing he said something he shouldn’t have. “With us four not like, alone or something!” He then quickly added. “Not that I  _ wouldn’t  _ want dinner with you alone of something-“ he quickly started speaking with his hands motioning quickly between them, before realizing what he had just said, “not like  _ that _ , I didn’t mean like- I just-“

“Please shut up,” Zuko interrupted. 

“Interesting,” Azula said. 

With a sigh, he followed the waiter to the table. 

~~

“I don’t think we’ve spoken a lot before,” Katara tried saying to the four. She looked really uncomfortable though. Zuko could hardly blame her. “Only during 4 Continents a bit.”

“Right,” said Mai. 

“Nice competing with you three,” Katara said, not exactly sounding like she meant it. 

“I’m sure it is,” Azula smirked. Katara tried her best not to pull a face, but it was pretty clear the girls weren’t exactly each other’s biggest fans. 

This was gonna be a long night. 

~~

It was a long night. In the end, Zuko didn’t end up talking too much in general. They were with 8, a large group, and most of the talking was done by Suki, Sokka and Ty Lee, but he learned a lot about the others anyways. All that was said was mostly some funny stories but it was still weird to Zuko. 

And kind of fun. Sort of. And it almost felt natural. Sokka was just… a very natural person if that made any sense. 

It barely made sense to him. 

~~

The next two days passed in what seemed like seconds. Zuko had told Sokka he’d talk after the competition, that for now, he really couldn’t afford to lose focus. And Sokka had agreed too. 

The short program was pretty early, and he skated last. Skating last is never a good thing. 

~~

The warm up went bad, really bad. 

“Focus, Zuko!” His coach almost yelled. Aang’s program was playing loudly in the rink, but the quick tempo of the song just made it worse. 

He was stressed, really stressed. Being this nervous hasn’t happened in a while. He had to do well, obviously, but Worlds is the biggest ISU championship, and next to the Grand Prix Final (and the Olympics of course), one of the most important competitions in this sport. He had won last year, and he had to do it again now. Zuko was on a winning spree the last couple of competitions, but that didn’t mean it would last. If anything, at some point he’d mess up.  _ Not at Worlds. Not at Worlds.  _ The fact that the arena was filled with over 18.000 people, who mostly seemed to be his fans too, wasn’t exactly helping, at all. 

And he was so  _ nervous.  _

Zuko zoned out the yelling of his coach, and the music in the background. Frankly, he was feeling kind of ill. 

~~

_ ‘I don’t deserve the cheering’ _ , was his first thought he had after his skate. It had been terrible, and he had never been this disappointed in himself after a skate. It started with a fall on the lutz, then an under rotation and bad landing on the toeloop, resulting in having to do a double toe rather than triple as second jump in the combo. Axel, he just managed to hang on, but he also stumbled during the step sequence. There was a high chance the lutz would be called under rotated too. 

Everyone before him had skated well, especially Sokka. But that hadn’t been the reason why he had been stressed. 

A tiny piece of him wanted to blame Sokka for this, for distracting him, but that wouldn’t be the truth, Zuko had been hyper aware about everything, and _ everything  _ had been distracting, but especially the pressure he had suddenly felt about winning, which was the reason he failed so hard.

His coach looked angrily at him, but he could only stare at the ground.  _ Really, Zuko, really? You really want to flop this hard now?  _

Mentally scolding himself, he sat down in the kiss and cry, looking away from the monitor. It was decorated beautifully, he noted as a way to distract himself, light pink with a clear cherry blossoms theme going on. 

Normally he’d try and make it up in the free skate, and he will try, but it’d be near impossible to become first, unless everyone, and especially Sokka and Jet, majorly fuck up.

In the end, he got in 9th, only because the lutz didn’t get called, and because of the PC scores, which he probably didn’t deserve in the first place. 

_ Fuck. _

~~

“Hey, Zuko, I’m-,” Sokka started softly when he entered the dressing room, but he didn’t want to hear it. 

“Leave me alone,” he snapped, taking his bag to go to his hotel. Seeing the women’s short program was the least of his concerns right now. Azula was gonna win anyways. 

~~

Snapping at Sokka was dumb, he knew, but whatever. Nothing he could do about it now. 

Zuko groaned, burying his face in his pillow. 

“Stupid!” He muttered to himself. 

After what seemed like about four hours of just lying there, regretting everything,  _ feeling worn out _ , his head both full and empty at the same time, he fished out his phone out of his pockets to find a livestream to watch the women’s skate. 

He could’ve just gone to watch at the rink, he  _ should _ ’ve, but coming out of bed now seemed like a terrible idea and he wasn’t keen on it whatsoever. 

The second to last group was just about to skate, but he fell asleep. 

~~

“Zuko! Open the fucking door!” 

Groggily, Zuko opened his eyes to the knocking -no, stomping- on the door.  _ What the fuck.  _

“I swear, if I need to kick in that door, i will!” His sister yelled again from the hallway. 

“You’re making a scene!” He yelled back, still not moving from the bed.  _ Really, Azula?  _

But hey, at least the hotel beds were comfy. 

“I give you 10 seconds!” 

That’s 10 seconds before a huge scolding, probably. He needed those 10 seconds to mentally prepare. God, he really wished he could just go back to sleep. 

The clock indicated it was 6AM.  _ What the actual fuck.  _

“Okay, okay, I’m coming!” He wasn’t even sure how she herself had skated, he had probably just slept for 10 hours at least, and it was needed. At least now he felt like he had enough energy for the free skate tomorrow. His sister however, had the free skate tonight. Did she really find the need to spend time and energy scolding him now?

He swung open the door, waiting for Azula to start saying something, but she didn’t. In fact, she looked somewhat stressed, and like she was buckling somehow, like she was hanging onto something but ready to fall down. Not a sight that is often seen, at all. 

Finally, she pushed him aside with her hand to walk into the room. 

“We need to fix this in the free skate,” she said.  _ We? “ _ We  _ really  _ need to fix this, we-“ 

“I will, thanks,” he rolled his eyes. To be fair, if that’s all she was gonna say, he counted himself lucky. 

Her eyes grew as she sat on the bed. “You didn’t see my short program, did you?” Azula said in disbelief and narrowed her eyes. 

“Uhm,” Zuko looked away. “No, I didn’t. I was kind of,... bummed out. And tired.” 

“Just,” she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. god, was she shaking? “Look up the results on your phone.”

He went to the official pages, to open the protocols. That’s strange, Azula’s name wasn’t to be found on the first one. Or second. Or third. 

“I-,” things started falling into place now.

“Don’t rub it in!” She said sharply. In fact, Ty Lee was in first. And then Mai. And then Katara. She was still in fifth, so still better than Zuko, but for being Azula…

This must have been the first competition in her life she didn’t skate clean and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. 

_ Fall on the axel. Underrotated.  _

Azula looked close to crying. 

He could already imagine the headlines back home. ‘Top figure skating siblings crumble under the pressure, fail to deliver’, something like that.  _ Fuck.  _ Their dad was going to kill them. He didn’t know what his father would say to Azula, she had never skated badly before, but with their father there was no way knowing what he’d do. 

Failing at a World Championship? The both of them? Zuko rather not find out how his father would react to that. 

“You can make this up in the free skate,” he said. She probably would too, fifth isn’t that bad. Although there was quite the gap, but the base value of her free program was a lot higher than that of the other girls. 

“I don’t know,” her voice betrayed her for a second, before she cleared her throat and composed herself. “You better shift your ass,” Azula sharply said. “And make it better for yourself too,” she crossed her arms and stood up, walking away in a second. “Don’t fuck this up,” as if she herself didn’t look on the brink of a breakdown 10 seconds ago. 

_ Fuck.  _

~~

That night, he did go to watch the women’s free skate live. Not really to support Azula or anyone, just because he was at the competition anyways so he might as well could go watch. Bumping into Sokka and Aang had been an accident, but was to be expected. 

“Come sit with us!” Sokka acted like nothing had happened yesterday. Because really, nothing had happened yesterday. Except for the fact that Zuko very much had snapped at the other. Sokka probably thought of him as rude anyways. 

For a moment, Zuko realized Azula hadn’t really said anything Sokka related this whole competition. Maybe she really was too nervous to notice, because nerves were apparently a bigger problem than Zuko ever thought they would be. Or maybe she didn’t care enough. Or maybe it was yet to come after he inevitably fucked up the free skate after she won her title back. 

“Alright,” he still hesitated, but Aang just acted like normal too, like they were all extremely good friends, and it was weird, this whole friends thing.

Quickly, he realized how much Sokka talked. A fuckton, that’s how much. Zuko had already noticed that, that day at the banquet, and during dinner, but now it was just in tenfold. Not during people’s skates, but before and after like some kind of personal commentator. It wasn’t too loud or anything, but he really seemed to love discussing figure skating. 

It was almost endearing. Almost. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

He was breaking through Zuko’s shell and he knew it. Frankly, even though he knew it wasn’t his fault, he still felt somewhat bad about Zuko’s bad skate yesterday.

Azula had skated badly too, and Sokka briefly wondered if something had happened with the two of them with their family or something like that, but it really wasn’t Sokka’s place to ask. 

The last group, which consisted of Toph, Suki, Ty Lee, Mai, Azula and his sister, were warming up now, and Azula seemed more composed than yesterday. 

“I really like your sister’s program,” he noted, but Zuko just hummed in response, eyes fixated on the ice. Did the two of them have a good relationship? It didn’t really seem like it, from what Sokka had noticed there was always a lot of tension, but they still hung out a lot during competitions so maybe?

“Katara seems focussed,” said Aang. After just falling off the podium last year with less than a point difference, Sokka really hoped his sister could podium this year. She deserved it after all. But then again, didn’t everyone kind of deserve it? All the skaters practiced hard for this, obviously. Either way, he hoped she would do well. 

“They all do,” Sokka replied though. 

All of them were having pretty good warm ups, not that that’s a good measurement for how the actual free skate will go. 

“Azula is stressing out,” Zuko muttered then, silent enough so the people around the wouldn’t hear. 

It didn’t really show on Azula’s face, but Sokka didn’t know her that well anyway. 

“Everyone’s kind of stressed, I’m guessing,” Aang replied. “It’s a big competition.”

“No, not Ty Lee. Mai isn’t either,” Zuko said. “But Azula is never nervous. She’s never skated badly in competition before yesterday. She’s nervous now.”

Azula almost seemed like a machine to Sokka because of her consistency. Even in juniors, she had always been extremely consistent with both her skating and podiuming at competitions. She seemed to be extremely confident always too. 

But Sokka knew the pressure she must’ve been under. Just like how Zuko was extremely popular by the skating fans, so was his sister. They were extremely big names in the skating world after all, whether they fully realized it or not. And with the consistency comes an extra pressure to stay consistent. 

“I’m sure she’ll do fine,” Aang tried comforting Zuko, who didn’t look like he needed to be comforted in the first place. 

Zuko just shook his head. “I don’t care.” 

It didn’t completely sound like a lie. 

~~

They watched Mai skate clean, and then Ty Lee skate clean. Suki had a tiny stumble during the program but still a good score. Toph had fallen once, but all the rest was good too. And now it was Katara’s turn. 

Aang and Sokka cheered loudly, and Zuko clapped a bit, which is better than nothing, he supposed. 

The music started, and Katara seemed to be in it straight away, skating a completely clean program, resulting into even more cheering of the audience, Sokka and Aang, and a bit more applause from Zuko. 

Katara cried a little as her scores were announced, having gotten a personal best score this season. 

“She did well, I actually think her PCs should’ve been a bit higher,” Zuko then said, much to the other two’s surprise. Fine, so maybe Sokka  _ hadn’t _ expected Zuko to ever be this positive. 

After that, Azula came on the ice, and she almost stumbled already just by skating around before she even started her program. 

“Is she injured?” Aang asked worried. 

“Not that I’m aware of,” Zuko sighed. There were things he wasn’t telling them, but they weren’t entitled to every piece of information either, he knew that too. “She’s slipping,” he then whispered, seeming only mildly concerned. Sokka wasn’t sure how to react. 

The music began, and Azula fell on her first triple axel, and then on the quad salchow. She managed to stay on her feet with the second axel, but then fell again on the lutz. It was painful to watch, seeing someone fall so many times. Watching someone lose more and more confidence every step they take, especially someone like Azula. Sokka wasn’t exactly her friend or something like that, but he still sympathised with her. All skaters know how painfully bad a competition can go sometimes. 

Zuko’s look was rather cold as he watched his sister do her end position, dropping to her knees soon after. She seemed on the verge of a mental breakdown, and both Sokka and Aang looked more worried than Zuko. 

The audience seemed to be in shock by what they had just witnessed, but still applauded loudly to encourage her. 

She stayed there for what seemed like over a minute before finally getting up and bowing. 

Now, Sokka wasn’t exactly the best at reading people, but he knew Azula wasn’t exactly stable right now. 

Zuko got up. “I’m going back,” he mumbled, before his sister’s points were even announced. 

“Wait,” Sokka could feel his own hands wrapping around the other’s wrist before even thinking about it. He wasn’t sure what to say, but he wanted to somehow prevent a possible family drama or something along those lines. “Uhm,” he mumbled. “Good luck?”  _ Really Sokka? _

The other just nodded. “You too.” He turned around. 

“Is he going to yell at her?” Aang then asked. 

“I don’t know,” Sokka didn’t really think that’s something Zuko would do, but how well did he know the guy anyway? But at the same time, a lot of people thought of Zuko as scary, with the scar and all, and Sokka didn’t want to follow those judgements. 

In the end, Azula ended up going in 9th, and she looked absolutely devastated. But hey, at least Katara got in third. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

Seeing his sister skate this badly only made him more scared about his own skate the day after. Azula was supposed to be the confident, never nervous, always consistent one. If she couldn’t do it then who could? 

Not Zuko, that’s for sure. 

~~

The warm up had perhaps been one of the worst he had ever had, but the program itself had been pretty much clean. Clean enough to get in first in the free skate, but second overall but with less than a point ahead of third place. Sokka had skated clean too, and frankly, he really deserved the world title with how me had skated. 

He didn’t need more people telling him he didn’t deserve to even medal in the first place either. 

This time during the victory ceremony, Sokka pulled him into an even tighter hug and Zuko could practically imagine all the tweets and Instagram posts, but for a tiny second he didn’t care. 

“Hey, you want to hang out tomorrow? Before the gala maybe?” Sokka said after. 

“I don’t know…” he said straight away. It seemed like a bad idea, this whole ‘hanging out’, for some reason. Especially now. 

But Sokka is clearly the kind of guy who doesn’t give up right away. “Please? It’s cherry blossom season and we’re in Japan! It would be super cool to go to some kind of park, no?”

Frankly, Zuko didn’t really care for cherry blossom trees, or parks for that matter, but he agreed anyway. His dad would be angry no matter what he did, and he didn’t have to know either. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

To be honest, Sokka had just mainly been bummed out because Suki couldn’t come with him to the park to see the trees, hence why he asked Zuko. 

Okay maybe that’s not fully true. But it was a part of it. 

Yes, Sokka was intrigued about Zuko. And maybe he would find out more today. 

And again, cherry blossom season in Japan. Who doesn’t like cherry blossoms?

~~

“We have gala practice in two hours,” Zuko said as first thing when they saw each other in the hotel lobby where they had decided to meet. They hadn’t even gone out yet! 

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back on time,” Sokka smirked, and Zuko looked a bit funnily back at him. 

“Okay,” he said, looking around suspiciously, as if they were dealing drugs or something like that. 

“Uh, you alright?” 

“Yes,” he said, sounding not too alright. “It’s just,” he sighed. “Nothing.” 

~~

“It’s so beautiful!”  _ Wait, was that too girly? _ He scraped his throat. “In like, a manly way of course.”  _ And why would that even matter? _ Why the fuck were his thoughts even going like this?

Zuko snorted, which was a weird sound to hear from  _ Zuko _ . “Right.” 

They had been silent most of the walk, but not necessarily uncomfortable. It was however still a bit weird. 

And then Zuko said something unexpected. “I’m sorry I said we couldn’t be friends a couple of month ago,” his eyes were fixed forwards on the path they were following, and Sokka could feel his own eyes growing. 

“Uhm,” he said. “That’s alright?” Because really, what does one reply to that? He had absolutely no idea if it was appropriate to ask why or if that meant they were friends now or something along those lines. 

“I don’t really have friends in the skating world, except for my rink mates,” he then added. 

“No kidding,” Sokka’s eyes rolled before he could stop himself. 

Zuko of course went into defense-mode, true Zuko-style. “What, is that a problem?”

“No,” Sokka said. “Whatever makes you happy, I guess. I could never though,” and it’s true, he couldn't. Sokka really liked being friends with other skaters. 

“I have my sister and Ty Lee and Mai,” he still defended himself. 

“They seem,... nice,” Ty Lee especially. Azula hadn’t really been rude towards him personally, but he had heard a couple of different stories from his sister from a few seasons ago. Mai was pretty alright too. She did call him ‘not  _ that _ bad’ after all. 

Zuko just hummed, and very much so didn’t follow up on whether this meant they were friends now or not. 

The setting was a bit weird. Just the two of them, surrounded by beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom, it was somewhat romantic if Sokka really thought about it. Sokka himself had no idea why his train of thought was actually going there. He shook his head as if that would make him stop thinking about it. 

“I think we could be friends,” he did end up saying. “Sometime in the future maybe.”

Sokka’s eyes grew, “really?” He asked and sure, they apparently weren’t  _ friends _ friends yet but this was a whole step in the right direction. 

“That’s what you wanted, no?” Zuko looked like he was nearly about to smile.

Mission succeeded! He nearly pumped his first in the air out of victory, but stopped himself just in time. 

Well if they were on an  _ almost friend base _ , a bit of teasing should be alright, right? “Tsk, not everything is about you, Zuko.”

“No, but you’re not a subtle person.”

Okay, touché. 

_ Win for Sokka.  _

~~

Both the gala and the banquet went through fast, really fast. 

Sokka decided to not cling onto Zuko too much and leave him and his little friend group a bit alone for this evening, but still said something before he left. 

“I have an early flight to catch,” , a lot of other skaters wanted pictures with Zuko. Maybe because today was the first time he hadn’t pretty much refused from the start. It was almost as if Zuko had been the champion, and not him. Not that he was jealous of course. 

Honestly, he really wasn’t. Zuko had always been more popular to begin with, and he himself had enough people coming up to him asking for pictures. But he was always more willing for photos, so the novelty of it wore off quickly. 

“Alright,” he said. Zuko looked tired and ready to collapse. 

“You alright?” 

“Yea, yea, sure,” he vaguely waved his hand and turned around to look at his sister, who was talking to Ty Lee. 

“Uhm, see you at World Team Trophy then?” He asked. In reality, nothing about World Team Trophy was exactly decided yet, but the chances of either Russia or Canada not being in the top 6 biggest feds anymore were slim, and Sokka and his sister not going were about just as slim. 

“Yup, have a safe flight,” Zuko sounded softer than normal. 

“Thanks, you too,” he said, ready to turn around and leave before he heard the other faintly say his name again. 

“Uhm, I just wanted to say thank you, I guess?” 

Sokka smiled, even if he wasn’t entirely sure why Zuko was thanking him. 

“No worries,” he smiled back before leaving again. Before it got weird. 

  
  


“What was that all about?” His sister later asked. 

“I’ll tell you all about it on the plane.”

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is not a personal attack at Edea as a brand or their skates but jfc please stop asking me if I’ll change back to Edea because believe me I’ve tried and the answer is a no. Keep in mind only you know what skates work best for your feet! Just because everyone is switching brands doesn’t mean you should if your current ones work well.


	10. World team trophy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw// mentioned physical abuse in the first two paragraphs of the chapter.

_ ZUKO _

The bruise on his arm and the split lip he had gotten still stung, but it could’ve been worse. He’d have been a fool anyways to think his father wouldn’t be angry about this whole thing. Zuko was still number one in the world standings, but World’s was still a big deal, and his father had been angry whenever he lost a competition, no matter how small. 

Azula didn’t get beaten as far as he knew, not that she would tell him either way, but it didn’t look like she had been. According to her mood however, she had definitely gotten yelled at. 

“Maybe you should stay away from Sokka,” she said when they were sat in his room, sounding a bit angry. “Ever since then, you’ve been fucking up.”

That might be an overreaction. “I got second in ONE competition!” He had not been fucking up  _ because  _ of Sokka, thank you very much. It’s not like they were that close already either. 

“Yea well, one you could’ve won!” She snapped back. Azula looked like a mess, her hair hanging loose, with a couple of strands hanging over her face, and her eyes looked like she hadn’t slept for days, which might be true. 

But frankly, Zuko felt like he probably looked as just as big of a mess. 

“Well then, what’s your excuse?” He said back. It was a low blow, Zuko knew it, but she had started this whole thing, and he was gonna finish it, goddamnit. “Found yourself a new friend too?” 

“I-“ she stammered, not looking nearly as confident as she normally did anymore. Very out of character. She  _ didn’t  _ have an excuse, apart from the immense pressure falling onto her shoulders, but she won’t admit that either way. “Whatever, I don’t care, be like that, ruin your life,” she angrily stood up and left. 

All things considering, that could’ve gone worse too. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

His father had just called his sister and him to congratulate them on their skate and he was absolutely over the moon because of all the praise he’d been getting. Right after he got back, the Canadian skating federation asked for confirmation if they were doing World Team Thropy, which also was very exciting. 

Look, WTT is a no-stress competition. Or at least a low-stress competition, because it was still an official ISU one of course. The scoring was a bit wack sometimes, which is always annoying, but the competition itself was super fun, everyone working in teams and cheering each other on. Also, individual points didn’t matter as much as teamstandings did. In a sport like figure skating, a solosport, it was nice to have something more in team for once. 

Next to that, it was also in Japan, and skating in such a big skating country after he himself had won the world title there was absolutely amazing. 

According to the ISU, the Russian fed had confirmed Zuko and Azula would be there too, so that’s cool. Suki would be as well, and maybe now they’d have even more time to hang out than during worlds. 

After WTT, it was the end of the season, but even better, there were a lot of shows he was doing. Ice Fantasia in Korea the week after WTT, a couple of the Stars On Ice in the US and Canada and almost all the Fantasy On Ice shows in Japan too. This was the first year he was doing this many ice shows, but it was exciting nonetheless. Shows were really his thing, if he said so himself. 

~~

Like how he spent most of his free time, Sokka was scrolling through Twitter. It was 5am, he should be sleeping, but he was still jet lagged and he had no classes tomorrow anyways. Not that it really mattered, he’d be skipping almost all of his classes the next two months with the shows either way. At least his professors put their class recordings online. 

As always, his Twitter was filled with people discussing various skating discourses. People were doing their own rescoring, which often happened after competition and Sokka quite liked the fact that not everyone took everything the judges said for granted, even if he wouldn’t say it out loud (and thereby possibly ruining his own career).

Another couple of people were yelling, happily, over pictures taken during the gala that had just came out, which were pretty nice. A picture of Katara in her beautiful light blue dress standing in her end-pose, a picture of Ty Lee mid-biellmann , a picture of himself shirtless. Okay maybe that being shirtless wasn’t the best idea after all, but his fans do seem to like it. The last picture was of Zuko in his sparkly black and red outfit, mid-air. Red was definitely Zuko’s color. 

Sokka of course zoomed in on Zuko’s face, because frankly, everyone’s face is funny as hell mid-air. 

Yup, Zuko was no exception to the rule, and Sokka couldn’t keep himself from grinning at the ridiculous face he was pulling. 

To make matters worse, and to make fans scream even more, Sokka decided to upload a couple of pictures he took with other skaters during the banquet. Of course his fans loved that too, seeing pictures of skaters in nice dresses and suits. 

Quickly, the replies started flooding in. 

“ _ Oof, bless! King!” _

_ “Congrats on your victory!!” _

_ “Can’t wait for the WTT banquet!” _

And then a few… others. 

_ “Post a pic with Zuko.” _

_ “Okay but, where is my Sokka/Zuko ft suits pic?” _

_ “Every other skater took pics with Zuko though, come on, where’s yours?” _

He kept scrolling through his timeline. 

_ “Apparently Zuko and Sokka were spotted in a park in Japan together!”  _ One tweet said. 

Well—

The comments under that were… something. 

_ “Wait really?”  _

_ “Yup! Here’s a pic to prove:” _

_ “... guys, not to be me, BUT, that setting… looks pretty romantic if you ask me. Y’know, just saying.” _

“ _ Pretty romantic? Completely romantic you mean?” _

_ “Zukka nation rise!”  _

Okay, that ‘Zukka nation rise’ was a new one. Sokka liked to think he was pretty good with Internet slang, but apparently not. 

What he did understand however is that he apparently had really dug his own grave with going to see the cherry blossoms in Japan with Zuko. Of course people would spot them, Zuko is extremely popular in Japan, and so was he, and they were close near the venue. And of course people would think it’s romantic because, well, the picture  _ did _ look kind of romantic. And of course Twitter manages to ship literally everyone and everything either way. 

_ A date with Zuko _ . Sokka almost laughed out loud at that thought.  _ Zuko _ . Yea no. Sure, Sokka had accepted the fact that he was bi years ago, but  _ Zuko? _ Okay he was kind of handsome but that’s not the point. They were barely friends at most and the other still seemed to be somewhat on the defence. Not that he’d want a date with Zuko otherwise or something, it’s still  _ Zuko. _

Still, it was hard to stop thinking about this once it was on his mind. Now he knew him better, he also knew Zuko could be funny, he cared more than he’d like to admit, and he was too awkward for his own good. He looked good in red and black and he knew it. 

For all Sokka knew though, Zuko was straight anyway. 

Not that he’d care. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

The longer he was home, the more grateful he was for the fact that he’d be spending the next couple of months abroad. Azula had decided against most of of the shows Zuko was doing, only choosing a couple, saying she’d rather spent her time practicing than doing shows, but his coach and him had decided it’d be good for Zuko. It would help his performance level, learn more how to ‘interact’ with the public as they say, and overall would be a good practice for his program components probably. 

So that’s why he decided on doing Ice Fantasia in korea after WTT, then Prince Ice World in Japan, and Fantasy on Ice in Japan. There were about two weeks in between but he would practice in Japan rather than go back home and deal with a jetlag for only those few days. 

Zuko might as well be moving house if you looked at him and all of his bags at the check in at the airport now though. Listen, skating costumes and clothes and everything you need for at least two months took a lot of place alright? And then he had something else, a bad idea maybe, in his suitcase that he didn’t tell too many people about. He wasn’t sure if he’d use it, but it would definitely be a cool prop. He’d ask Sokka’s opinion on it later. 

His sister wasn’t having it. 

“You’ll never be able to carry all of that all the time,” she rolled her eyes, as if he himself didn’t know that. 

“Don’t worry,” he rolled his eyes back. “It’s all been taken care of.”

Half of it would go straight to the next hotel he’d be staying at, as promised by the organisation of the shows. 

“Whatever,” Azula replied. She would never admit to it, but she kind of looked jealous over the fact that Zuko was going for 2 months when she had to stay home. 

Zuko couldn’t fully blame her. 

~~

He really kind of wished Mai was here for a couple of reasons. First of, he was bored as fuck. Secondly, if Sokka asked him to go do things, he could maybe use Mai as a “woops, no sorry, I already have plans.” Ty Lee was there, but they weren’t quite on the same level of friendship and Sokka hung out too much with Suki who is Ty Lee’s friends so…

Mai  _ could’ve  _ been there. Two years ago, the biggest federations were Canada, Russia, China, Japan, France and the USA, but this year Italy had taken the place of China somehow. 

Either way, it wasn’t fair, in Zuko’s rather selfish opinion at least. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

Zuko and him have been making small talk before and after practices or whenever they ran into each other. Just small things like “hey, are you planning that quad lutz- triple toe combo?” Or “just wait till you see this new spin variation I’ve been trying to master all month!” Such things. And it was somewhat comfortable too, until the conversation fell awkwardly silent after 5 minutes, in which they started tying/undoing their skates faster or decided to continue with whatever else they were doing. Other than that, they didn’t have too much time with everything being more in teams than anything else. 

Zuko aside, WTT was  _ fun.  _ A lot of fun. 

The opening alone was already fun, with all teams presenting themselves.Two years back, team China had come out with colorful afros and their own little dance, and team Russia had worn traditional Russian scarves and headpieces. This year, it was pretty similar to that, except for the fact that team China wasn’t there of course. 

It was also a good time to catch up on his team mates. Generally, every country sent in 2 male skaters, 2 female, one ice dance team and one team for pair skating. The other men and women going to WTT for Canada were 2 younger kids, maybe 16, that had gotten second at nationals. Sokka had never spoken that much to them so it was nice he could do that now. 

First on was ice dance, and all teams were cheering for their team mates. Toph, Jet, and the rest of their team had worn obnoxious clothes with the American flag on it but it was okay because, well, World Team Trophy. Also, Toph was  _ extremely _ good at cheering very loudly when she had to. Still, Canada was going for that “team spirit” price though. They  _ would _ win. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

World Team Trophy was not as fun as it looked. Okay, everyone else seemed to have a lot of fun, but people almost seemed more focused on the team spirit award then the actual skating. 

Points didn’t really matter, placement did, but that didn’t take away from the fact that to his father, points did matter and Azula and him had a lot to make up. 

Zuko wasn’t even at the kiss and cry during the women’s skate. He know he should’ve been, but he had already been there during the ice dance and he could get away with it now, seeing as he himself would skate in like 2 hours. Did he need 2 hours to get ready? Not really, but he didn’t want to sit there acting all crazy like the rest of team Russia just for this. 

Sokka seemed to have different plans though and looked like he was having the time of his life. Not that Zuko noticed or something. 

~~

The other boy skating for Russia didn’t do so well, so everything fell onto Zuko’s shoulders. Well, Azula had gotten in first and the other Russian girl in fifth. The ice dancers got in third, so their team definitely wasn’t doing badly, but still. Did he really care about getting his team on the podium? Not really, but again, skating well did matter to his father. 

And then suddenly, he realized. Something that he probably should’ve realized a month ago. He was angry alright. Angry at his father, angry at the sport, angry at his jumps and spins but mainly angry at himself. He had everything right within reach and letting it go was not an option at all. 

~~

In the end, he broke another record. Team Russia went wild, kind of at least with the exception of Azula who seemed about as into this competition as he himself was, and so did the crowd. Yes, he did skate extremely well. In his own opinion, his scores were still a bit high though, but that’s all on the judges.

While team Russia was making some more noise, one of the other Canadian guys was waving a really big flag as Sokka entered the ice. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

He didn’t exactly have a clean skate, and neither did the other Canadian guy, but it’s fine. His sister handed him a bottle of maple syrup, which he happily showed the camera while the others were holding out their big flag behind him. Some of his teammates were wearing moosehats and even his coach looked like he was having the time of his life. This team spirit award was theirs. 

~~

The day after it was pairs skating first. Team Canada did rather well, but Team Russia and Team Japan were still ahead. 

After that was the free dance, but Sokka decided against cheering for that. Because maybe he should focus more on winning this thing. The men’s free skate was right after this anyways. 

He walked into the warming up hall, seeing only Zuko and some ice dancers there. Sokka wasn’t planning on talking to him and bringing him out of the zone, but fate had it another way. 

“I need your opinion on something,” Zuko suddenly asked. 

“Sure, what is it?” Sokka mentally patted himself on the back over the fact that Zuko wanted his opinion on something. Yay progress! “I’m very good at giving opinions.”

“I was thinking, for the gala, I want to skate with fire,” Zuko said, as it it was nothing. “Or at least for the ice shows I’m doing.”

_ What the fuck?  _ “I’m sorry? What?” Surely he heard that wrong. 

“I want to skate while holding these kind-of torches? Well, they’re more like… Big things you can have in each hand, with 6 torches on them?” He said, if that made it any more normal, which it very much didn’t. Seriously Zuko, what the fuck?

Sokka looked at him in shock. “You want to skate… with fire?” Listen, Sokka wasn’t big on fire, at all.  _ Skating  _ with fire seemed like a terrible, terrible idea and he highly doubted Zuko meant merely skating around in circles. “Please don’t tell me you want to jump with that!” 

“I do want to jump with it! Spin too!” He defended himself, as if that didn’t literally sound insane. His face started looking more annoyed too, as if it wasn’t perfectly understandable for Sokka to look at him as if he was out of his mind. “Listen, I’ve tried it back at home a couple of times and-...”

“That’s crazy!” Sokka let out. 

“No it’s not!” Zuko said. “What? I’m good with fire!”

There’s no way he’s good with fire. No one is good with fire! It’s  _ fire!  _ It’s not something you can control!

“Is that how you got your scar? Playing with fire?” He nearly shouted before he knew it and Sokka wanted to swallow it back in almost straight away.  _ Dumb dumb dumb.  _ No one had addresses the elephant in the room yet that was Zuko’s scar, but it  _ did  _ look like a burn wound. Still, it was stupid for him to even say that. Zuko visibly flinched at that. 

“I-...” he started, before his voice turned more angry. “No it’s not. Don’t talk shit about things you have no idea of!” He stood up, and Sokka thought he’d leave, but for some reason he didn’t. Instead, his mouth opened again, ready to say something, before he angrily closed it again without speaking. 

“Listen, I’m sorry! It just came out! I have no brain to mouth filter-“

“No, you don’t,” Zuko rolled his eyes. 

_ There goes the progress.  _

Having a discussion like this right before a competition isn’t the best thing either, for either of them. At least the couple of ice dancers seemed too busy with focussing on their off ice warm up than listening to them. 

There was a long pause before Zuko sighed and said something unexpected. “I did get my scar from an incident with fire,” he confirmed. “It is a burn, yes.” 

Sokka wasn’t sure, but this was probably the most he had ever revealed something about his scar to someone that he wasn’t close with. 

Zuko went on. “But, that was only partially my fault. And I wasn’t on ice when it happened. I’m good with fire, I promise you. And it will look extremely cool.”

“Your fans think of you as cool either way,” Zuko’s idea still sounded extremely stupid though. “You don’t have to do something like that to prove you are.”

Zuko let out a sigh, or maybe it was a tiny laugh, he wasn’t sure. “Maybe. But it will be special, that’s for sure. I don’t have the same presentation as you do during galas, I’m not that exciting to watch. I  _ want  _ to be exciting to watch.” 

Sokka would argue on that, Zuko was a good skater, and not nearly as boring to watch as he himself seemed to think. He didn’t argue though. “Well, if you really want to do it, I guess it would look cool…”

Looking pleased with himself, Zuko smiled now. 

Sokka really hoped this wouldn’t end badly. 

“Maybe I’ll keep it for the ice show next week,” he then said. 

_ Wait, he’s doing shows? _ Okay so maybe Sokka had forgotten that possibility being here. “In Korea?” It was a stupid question. He probably should’ve checked the list of skaters earlier but he didn’t think he’d have any shows with Zuko, because he didn’t last year and Zuko doesn’t do many shows in general. 

That certainly made things easier. Sokka hadn’t even thought about the off season that much, or how the whole friend thing would go down meanwhile. 

Zuko nodded. “Yea. I probably should ask permission from the organisation first though.” 

“They might wanna know if you’re planning on burning down the venue, yes,” Sokka laughed. 

Zuko was really telling him about the plans he had for galas of all things. Wild. 

The other rolled his eyes. “I’m not gonna burn down the venue!” He defended himself again. “But anyways, I’m gonna warm up. Thanks, I guess?” 

And with that, they went their separate ways for now. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

It had been a long day. Scratch that, it had been a long season. He didn’t skate the free completely clean, but he did win. They had gala practice early tomorrow morning, so he should be sleeping, but he couldn’t. 

He wasn’t the most “spur of the moment”-kind of guy, but he was in Japan, at World Team Trophy, had skated well and wouldn’t be going home for two months. He might as well do some things he otherwise couldn’t get away with. 

Quickly he put on his regular clothes back on and took his coat. He didn’t exactly have a plan, but he took the elevator to the hotel lobby anyways, and walked straight through the door outside. 

It was dark, and he was never good with finding his way through different places. Ah, regret was already filling his thoughts. 

Maybe this wasn’t the best idea after all. So much for being impulsive and wanting to hang out in a foreign country. He was ready to turn on his heel and walk straight back inside. 

“You’re gonna do amazing!” He heard Sokka’s voice in the distance, and a woman giggling in response. 

Now, this is what took Zuko’s attention. 

It wasn’t Zuko’s  _ plan _ to listen in on the conversation, it was an accident really. But either way, he turned around, not getting closer, but also kind of trying to not be too obvious. 

Neither of the two seemed to have noticed. 

“You did really well though, your jumps have improved a lot,” Suki said in response. “I’m glad you could come hang out by the way. It’s been too long since we’ve been together, to like  _ actually  _ hang out. Not just for a few minutes between competitions or during gala practices.”

_ What is their relationship anyways? _ Not that it mattered or something. 

“I know right! I’ve missed you,” Sokka slung his arm around her. 

Zuko had seen enough. He probably shouldn’t be witnessing this conversation either way. 

In the end, he did end up going into town. And for some reason, the whole conversation he had with Sokka about the fire kept playing in his head. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

“You look tired as fuck, no offence,” was the first thing he said when he saw Zuko.  _ Holy fuck, did he not sleep at all last night? _

“Tell me about it,” Zuko groaned. “I went into town last night and got lost. In hindsight, i should’ve really taken my phone with me. My orientation skills are absolutely horrible!” 

Sokka couldn’t help but laugh at that. “That wasn’t your best idea ever.”

“You don’t say.”

~~

By the end of the practice, everyone was more so playing around than anything else. And doing stupid stuff, that too. Haru was trying quad lutz for the first time. Jet was trying quad sal-quad toe. Sokka himself was doing quad loop-euler-triple sal. The loop was most definitely underrotated, but they all were doing it just for the hell of it anyway. 

Zuko really took the cake though. “Watch me,” he said, launching himself into a quad axel, ending up falling, but still. It looked just on the verge of not being downgraded. No one was even  _ really  _ trying quad axels yet. Or so Sokka had thought at least. 

Up until now, he didn’t even think anyone would even bother with quad axel considering their base value was only one point higher than quad lutz, even if they seem impossible. 

Haru’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor, and Sokka couldn’t say he wasn’t surprised either. 

“What the fuck,” he muttered, but Jet seemed less surprised. 

“Not round,” he simply said rather smile-y, pointing at the lines on the ice. “Tsk, Zuko, you’re missing half a turn.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Zuko rolled his eyes and stood up, but looked down at the mark on the ice where his blade hit during the landing. The other 3 boys came to look too. 

“It’s past forwards.”

“Yup,” Zuko confirmed. 

Also, Sokka noted this was the first time Zuko looked this free during a practice, talking with the three of them, doing quad axels and all that. 

“Come on, let’s do some cantilevers, that’s fun,” Jet said, not liking the attention being towards the newly tried jump. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

He felt strangely comfortable with all of this. The talking with not only Sokka but the others too. The fact that he wasn’t going home anytime soon probably had to do with it. 

And the fact that his sister wasn’t at the gala practice, yea that too. 

He couldn’t exactly not go to the ladies free skate considering there was nothing else at that moment going on and the victory ceremony was after that, and team Russia would probably win. 

He tried cheering, but it wasn’t really in his blood, he supposed. At least he was wearing a Russian hat, right? It’s not like they were getting the team spirit award either way honestly. Meanwhile, when Katara stepped on the ice, team Canada was waving their big flag happily around and Sokka literally looked like he was having the time of his life, which he probably was, let’s be real. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

World Team Trophy was definitely one of the best competitions ever, he decided. The competition and the gala went by too fast, and now they were sitting there, at the banquet, getting first place for the team spirit award. Not that Sokka had any doubt they’d win this, they  _ were  _ the best team in that aspect for sure. Not to toot his own horn or something. 

Team Canada cheered loudly, just to show again how good at cheering they are. 

“That giant flag did help us win, apparently,” one of the younger skaters of the team laughed. 

It had indeed. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

Banquets were boring as they were, but with Mai not here and Ty Lee sitting with team Japan at the other side of the room, it was even worse. Team Russia had been chatting all evening, but in all honesty, he didn’t care that much. Sure, the gala had been fun enough and all, and so was their team winning overall, with his sister, him, and their ice dance team ending in first, and their pair skaters getting in second, but banquets weren’t exactly his thing. 

Texting Mai seemed like the best option right now, while Azula was talking to the other Russian skaters about how she was going to try quad toe before the end of the season. 

**Zuko: ** I hate banquets. 

**Mai:** You hate a lot of things 

**Zuko: ** I’m bored. 

**Mai: ** Go talk to Sokka?

He rolled his eyes.  _ Go talk to Sokka.  _ He could of course, and he had thought about doing that already earlier this evening but had decided against it. First of all, they had been talking a lot as is, and it was somehow scary. Secondly, Sokka had looked so happy sitting there with team Canada and he didn’t want to ruin that. 

Whatever, tomorrow morning he had a plane to Korea to catch. Maybe he could use that as an excuse to leave early. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found out  
[ skating with fire ](https://twitter.com/fsisdead/status/1115988606592651270?s=21)  
is a thing and I’m just as terrified as you are. However, very practical when writing a Zuko as figure skater au!
> 
> I’m super busy the next few weeks with school, so I sadly enough can’t promise regular updates until february. I will do my very best to update, but I’m just really overwhelmed right now. I’m having a blast writing this though and I love this au so it will definitely be completed, I just can’t promise anything for the next month, and I’m really sorry!


	11. Off-season part 1

_ ZUKO  _

In hindsight, seeing Sokka while boarding the plane was to be expected. In fact, quite a few skaters who were at World Team Trophy were also going to Ice Fantasia. 

However, what he hadn’t been expecting at all was the fact that Katara and Sokka were seated right next to him on the plane, by complete chance. It’s not like they had booked their tickets together. 

There’s no way this wouldn’t go badly. Thank God the flight wasn’t that long. 

“Zuko! You were gone early after the gala yesterday, I was looking for you,” Sokka said, kind of cheerfully, which is strange considering how early their flight was and how literally everyone knew that Sokka very much wasn’t a morning person. 

Katara didn’t look so cheerful and rolled her eyes. Though he couldn’t really blame her. 

Suddenly, he was immensely glad for sitting at a window, with Sokka right next to him. He could only imagine how awkward it would be if he was seated next to Katara. Or worse; between the two of them. 

“Yea, it’s an early flight,” Zuko said matter of factly. 

“Tell me about it, I slept like 3 hours,” he replied. 

“You know I was-“

“So Zuko,” Katara interrupted. “You don’t do ice shows too often, do you?” 

“No not really,” he said. “I’m doing more this off-season though than I did last year.”

“Are you gonna do… the  _ thing? _ ” Sokka asked, not as upset about it as when they were initially having the conversation. Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation. Zuko realized he was talking about the fire straight away. 

“I don’t know yet,” in all honesty, he hadn’t spoken about it yet with whoever was in charge of the show. “If it’s possible, I will.” He definitely should speak to whoever was in charge of the show. Though he really  _ really _ hoped they’d say yes. 

“What is this ‘ _ thing _ ’?” Katara narrowed her eyes, clearly not too excited over her brother and him having any kind of secrets. 

Sokka replied before Zuko could. “You’ll see! It’ll be really cool!”

Zuko couldn’t help for a moment to think about the fact that Sokka probably actually maybe almost trusted him when it came to this fire thing. And Zuko, who for one had a massive burn on his face, his fault or not, had never given him a reason to. For some reason, that thought almost made his heart skip a beat. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

“So the ‘friendship with Zuko’ thing seems to be going well for you?” Katara asked that evening in the hotel room. She had her own room but they were both bored and practice only started the next day in the evening anyways. 

“I guess you could say that,” frankly, it was going a lot better than Sokka himself had expected it to go. “He’s really not as bad as you think he is!” 

“If you say so,” she didn’t seem too sure about it all yet, but not as hostile as she once was either. And then, after a moment, she ended up adding, “maybe he’s not  _ that _ bad.”

~~

_ ZUKO _

Perhaps he had forgotten about the fact that a thing such as ‘group choreography” existed. Nothing in group was exactly his forté. He had made a conscious decision when he chose skating over any type of group sport. As well as the conscious decision when going for solo skating rather than pairs or ice dance. 

And the choreography itself wasn’t helping, at all. 

All the other skaters seemed to understand it well enough, but not Zuko. At least he was paired up with Mai, who had arrived late last night, for the ‘couple’ choreography. 

“I hate this,” she whispered, as if her face didn’t show it, “now I remember why I never wanted to do pairs.”

“You and me both,” he rolled his eyes. At least she wasn’t behind with the program itself. Zuko wasn’t fast in these things. Was it the twizzle first or the counter first? Or wait, was the twirling Mai around before that?

He wasn’t  _ good  _ at remembering choreography all that fast. Sure he wasn’t terrible, but there was a reason making his programs took hours. There was a reason he would do run throughs in his head every day for at least two weeks after getting a new program. 

Awkwardly he placed his hand on Mai’s waist and looked away because what else was he supposed to do?

“For fuck’s sake, Zuko, I’m not going to bite you or something,” Mai said a bit louder now, clearly referring to how stiff he was being with all of this. “And it’s a rocker first,  _ then _ the twizzles and  _ then  _ spin me around.”

As he spinned her around a bit later after another couple of failed attempts of doing the choreography, Zuko looked over to Sokka who seemed a lot more natural with this all, despite the fact that he too was very much a solo skater, and barely knew the girl he was paired up with. When Sokka winked at her, Zuko’s head snapped back towards Mai who was glaring, first at Sokka and then back to him. 

They didn’t speak about it. 

~~

He should do what he always had done between shows and practices, which is barely leave the hotel room during his free time, maybe go explore the city on his own for a bit, hell, even study a bit. 

But for some strange reason that didn’t seem attractive to him anymore at all. 

He blamed Sokka for this. 

He also blamed Sokka for his poor decision making skills and poor impulse control, but he was already halfway down the hallway before he even realized. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

There were tons of people that could be knocking on his hotel room door at 6pm. His sister maybe, or perhaps Aang. Maybe even some of the other skaters, who he had spoken to in the past few days. Sokka prided himself with being rather sociable after all. 

Who he however wasn’t expecting when opening the door, was Zuko. 

“Zuko?” He asked with perhaps a bit too much disbelieve in his voice. Maybe he forgot his jacket on the ice, maybe he came to ask if Sokka had seen it. Maybe—

“I’m bored,” the other declared, looking over Sokka’s shoulder straight into his room. 

Sokka was suddenly a lot more conscious of the mess he had made of the room in just one day than he perhaps should be. “Right, uhm, come in?” He opened the door a bit further, and kept himself from quickly trying to cover up the mess because that wasn’t going to work anyway. 

And he slowly started realizing things. Zuko had come to  _ him.  _ Zuko was  _ bored  _ and came to him. Zuko was bored and Mai surely was somewhere near and he still came to him. 

And yea, Zuko had implied that ‘ _ could be’ _ friend, more than a month ago, but now it really hit Sokka. They  _ were  _ friends. 

“Hey, we’re friends, right?” Sokka then asked before thinking, and for a second Zuko looked like he was about to turn straight around and  _ run  _ away as fast as he could. 

But he didn’t. 

And after a second more, he said, with an unreadable expression. “Well, I suppose you succeeded your mission. I’ll admit that.”

And Sokka couldn’t help the grin spreading widely over his face. It had worked! And now they’re friends surely Sokka would get to know him much better and —

And what exactly? Why is he this excited over that? Perhaps it was the satisfaction of it all. Or perhaps something else, he just didn’t know what. 

“Right,” he said, very much so not keeping in his grin. “Let’s grab some food then.” 

Zuko scoffed. “Oh, I’m sure people online will-... no you know what? Yea. Let’s get some food,” and he was up again in seconds. 

They were already halfway down the hallway before Sokka even realized he was still wearing his skating pants. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

Well, there it was. The official confirmation that, yes, they are friends. Friends that hang out and grab food together and all in all, Zuko was rather happy about it. 

Happier than he would’ve expected to have been. 

And it was comfortable and not awkward at all anymore. It perhaps hadn’t really been in a while, but Zuko only realized that now. 

Another good part about hanging out with Sokka is that he could literally talk for hours to everyone about anything. It spared Zuko from having to interact with as many people when Sokka was doing all the interacting at least. 

“Hey man,” Sokka then said, mouth half full with ramen, which only earned him a little roll of the eyes from Zuko. “Your quad axel attempts at the WTT gala, have you been practicing it a lot?” 

And it’s not like Zuko didn’t  _ like  _ talking about figure skating. Of course he did, he loved figure skating. But he also talked about figure skating with literally everyone, because it was the only topic people around him would ever bring up. 

And beside that, the quad axel attempt had been a mistake. Of course it had gotten out to the public, and of course it was what nearly all skating fans were discussing on the internet now. Theories on if he would land it, on if it would even be worth going for it with it only being one point higher than quad lutz (which in Zuko’s humble opinion, the answer was no, though the honour of having “first to land quad axel in competition” to his name would be), if he did it just for attention,... the list literally goes on. 

“Maybe,” he said. “Can we talk about something else though?” He asked as he put his last spoonful into his mouth. Had Sokka been here before? The food was really good and it had been his idea. 

“Uh, sure,” Sokka thought for a moment. “How’s your sister doing?”

Okay well, that was worse than the quad axel. 

Zuko groaned. “Something else?”

“Fine, you start!” Sokka countered. 

“Uhm, okay, well,” and this was the moment how bad he was at starting conversation. “Like,” just as he wants to talk, he blanks on every topic he could ever want to talk about. 

And that’s of course the moment he remembers the one thing he always remembers when he doesn’t want to think about it; all the studying he still needs to do and the projects he still needs to make. “You’re in college, right?” 

Sokka stifled a laugh. “Really? That’s your idea of an ideal conversation? Fine. Yes, I’m in college. It’s my first year actually, and it’s not very easy to combine it with skating if I’m being honest.”

“Tell me about it,” it had been a bit better this year now he had an idea of how to do everything, but last year has been a lot worse. 

“What do you even study?” Sokka asked then, looking genuinely interested in whatever Zuko was about to say. “Does anyone even know? I swear to God, you’re like a mystery, no one even knows anything ab—“

“I major in statistics,” Zuko cut him off. 

And then Sokka blinked. 

And again. 

And then he went into a laughing fit, because of course he did. 

“Wait,” he said, definitely not being finished laughing. “You study statistics” he laughed again and Zuko would be more annoyed at him,  _ should  _ be more annoyed at him, but for whatever reason he wasn’t. “No wonder you don’t tell anyone!”

“Hey! It’s not like I don’t tell anyone because I’m ashamed of it! I just like keeping things private!”

“Of course you do,” still grinning, Sokka shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you I swear, I just didn’t see this coming at all.”

And yea, so maybe he was a bit of a nerd. 

“So what did you think I studied, hu?” He crossed his arms in front of his chest. 

“I’m actually-... I don’t know,” Sokka admitted. “I just didn’t think you’d study statistics.”

Right. Zuko rolled his eyes again. “What you do anyway?” 

“Computer science,” Sokka then proudly proclaimed. 

The nerd. 

“I can’t believe you were laughing at me for studying statistics!”

“Hey!” He defended himself. “As I said, I wasn’t laughing with that! I was laughing because I would’ve never guessed.”

But it was something. It was one thing more in common they had. Zuko had had a few programming classes, and Sokka had quite a bit of knowledge on maths, and perhaps it’s not something most people would want to talk about, but neither seemed too upset by that being their main topic of discussion for the rest of the evening. 

When Zuko later returned to his hotel room, at 12:05AM, and flopped on the bed, he smiled softly against the pillow. 

~~

“You look tired,” was the first thing Mai said. Straight to the point, like always. 

And so yeah,  _ maybe  _ they had forgotten the morning practice was rather early. Zuko didn’t necessarily regret not returning to his hotel sooner as he was enjoying the conversation more than he’d like to admit, but he definitely wished he had slept a bit more. 

“I was out,” he said, and then added, “with Sokka,” because Mai would’ve figured out anyway. And at least she wouldn’t judge him too much. 

“Right.  _ Out _ with Sokka,” and really, he knew what she was trying to imply here but he was in no mood to address it. 

“Please just go over this group choreography with me again?” 

~~

_ SOKKA _

By the time the first show came around, Zuko had, with a rather disappointed look, told him how the organisation didn’t approve his whole fire idea. Which was, let’s be real, fair enough. 

And it’s not like Sokka was happy or something about that because Zuko was his  _ friend _ and he was  _ disappointed _ so he could never, but at the same time, he definitely felt relieved that the chances of the venue burning down just dropped by about 100%. 

“I’m sure another show will let you,”  _ and preferable one I’m not in _ , his brain silently added, even if it would be super impressive. He’s sure he’d find clips on Youtube if it happened. 

Zuko scoffed, “you think so? Really? Yea right.”

“Zuko, I’m really not gonna argue you on this again,” Sokka sighed and mentally noted to never, ever bring up fire with Zuko, because it was clearly a touchy subject, “I get you’re disappointed, but surely you see why the organisation isn’t a massive fan?”

At first, Zuko rolled his eyes and Sokka was scared they would end arguing about it anyway, but then he ended up saying, in the tiniest voice, “I guess not”, and that was the end of that.

~~ 

Something seemed to have really clicked because Zuko spent nearly spend every bit of free time with him, with the exception of one evening where he had gone out to diner with Mai. 

And now, it was saturday after the show, and it was late already and honestly, they really should go to bed. But instead, they sat there on Sokka’s bed, just talking. 

“I think Katara is starting to befriend Mai,” he said, “I saw them talking a couple of times this week.”

Sokka let out a small laugh. “Didn’t think I would see the day that happened.”

“Mai’s not so bad,” and maybe that’d a trend amongst people lately, calling others ‘ _ not bad’ _ . Doesn’t seem like he was wrong taking it as a compliment before. 

“She isn’t,” he agreed, and Zuko looked fondly at that, perhaps a bit too fondly, and Sokka really didn’t know what to make of that. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

There it was, Sokka and his phone in selfie mode going around the room taking pictures with everyone. It was to be expected, really, because this was the final day of the show and Sokka always posted a ton of pictures on his social media after every show. And not even Mai had told him no this time. 

So really, there was no escaping it. 

“Zuko!” Sokka then smiled way too brightly. 

And well, let’s just say Zuko surprised himself how easily he gave in. “Alright,” he sighed. 

Selfies are not his thing at all, and he never really knows how to smile properly in them, but Sokka was a real natural in these types of things and slung an arm around him, pulling him closer into the frame and smiling so brightly, it didn’t even look all that fake of a smile. Maybe it wasn’t, but Zuko isn’t exactly an expert on smiles so who knows. 

“Permission to post this on my Instagram?” Sokka had asked. 

And really, Zuko should’ve said no. He really, really should’ve. “Sure, go ahead,” he had replied instead, instantly realizing that had been a mistake. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can pry my statistics major!Zuko and computer science major!Sokka headcanons out of my cold dead hands.
> 
> Like last time, I can’t promise regular updates until february due to exams and deadlines, but I hope y’all enjoyed this chapter.


	12. Off-season part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See end notes for trigger warning

_ ZUKO _

”So, I guess I’ll see you in a month or so,” Sokka said when they were both at the airport, sounding tired from all their shows and the early morning flights. 

Zuko hadn’t really thought about it yet, about not seeing Sokka for a month. Why would he have? But now, with him having his flight to Japan and the other going to the US, he couldn’t help but feel a bit regretful. He just wasn’t completely sure what he felt regretful about. 

”Right,” he agreed.

”Take care,” Sokka said and he almost looked like he actually really cared. Because he probably actually did care. 

Whilst he appreciated the sentiment, Zuko couldn’t help but roll his eyes, ”we’re just doing some shows Sokka, neither of us is going to die.”

”No, I know, ” Sokka shook his head, ”but anyway, have fun, ” and before Zuko had even realised it, Sokka’s arms were tightly around his body, embracing him. 

And now, Zuko wasn’t a hugger. He doesn’t ’ _ hug’ _ , and it also wasn’t his first hug with Sokka either, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that this one felt somewhat different. Better, maybe. 

Or maybe it was just all in his head. 

~~

Fans on Instagram and Twitter seemed to greatly enjoy the pictures Sokka had taken during the show, and everyone kept talking about it. 

Perhaps ‘enjoy’ is quite the understatement. The amount of comments on Sokka’s last post with him were kind of insane. It was almost impossible to wrap his head around how many people had liked and commented on the picture. And that was just Instagram. Zuko didn’t even dare to check his Twitter yet. 

He didn’t exactly like looking at comments, especially not recently, because perhaps ignorance is bliss, but before he knew it his eyes fell one comment in particular. 

‘ _ No matter what your opinions are on Sokka and Zuko, you must admit no one had expected for their friendship to grow like this. They barely shook hands during medal ceremonies less than a year ago even though they’ve been competing together for a while, and Zuko never takes pictures with others. And look at them now!’ _

And, well, Zuko guessed they were right. No one had been expecting it, especially not he himself. 

He’d never admit it out loud, but inside he was glad the days of handshakes only and having no friends in his own category were over. 

~~

At this point, group choreography was truly a reason Zuko was regretting doing this many shows, but at least this one wasn’t too overly difficult. Not that the other one was, but still

With both Mai and Ty Lee there, but with the two of them often talking with each other, or with them having different choreography with the rest of the girls, Zuko found himself to be alone quite often whilst learning the choreography. 

And that was fine, it really was. Because figure skating, for him at least, is a solo sport. And practice is, again, something to do solo. Skating alone is something he’s been doing for years. He was  _ good  _ at it. It wasn’t a problem. 

  
  


~~ 

Alright, this is how far it has come. It’s only been four days since he had arrived here and he was  _ bored.  _ He hadn’t even spent that much time with Sokka and yet, here he was, missing that time somehow? 

His plan to use his time well and study wasn’t going great either. His book had been lying open on the same page for a good fifteen minutes now, and he had reread the first two sentences a million times, but they just wouldn’t register. It’s not that he didn’t understand, it’s just that he couldn’t concentrate on the words in front of him. 

And he hadn’t seen Mai and Ty Lee outside of the rink at all either. He had barely talked to them inside the rink for that matter. 

Maybe he should do that, visit one of the two. After all, they’ve been his friends for a long while. Yeah, he should visit them. 

So, he walked straight out the door and straight towards’ Mai’s hotel room, knocking impatiently on the door. Maybe that was his thing now, knocking on his friends’ hotel room doors out of boredom. 

Mai took way longer to open the door than what he had been expecting, and when she did her hair definitely didn’t look as neat as it normally did.  _ Strange _ , he thought,  _ it’s 4 in the afternoon. Surely she wasn’t asleep? _

“Zuko,” she acknowledged as he peered over her shoulder, seeing Ty Lee sitting on the bed with also not-so-neat hair, staring straight back at him. 

“Hi Zuko!” She said cheerily. 

“Can I come in?” He asked, but much to his surprise Mai didn’t open the door any further like she normally would. 

“I’m sorry but now is not really the time-...,” her face didn’t look very regretful as she said it though. 

This is weird. “Why not?” 

“Listen, Zuko, you’re my friend and I love you,” Mai began as Ty Lee let out a small laugh, “but you can be really oblivious sometimes, you know that? See you at practice tonight,” and just like that the door closed, leaving Zuko blinking at it for a couple of seconds. 

_ What the hell just happened? _

~~

After an hour longer of sitting back down at the small hotel desk, trying to make sense of his textbook in front of him, still not fully understanding what happened an hour earlier, Zuko got a text message. 

**Sokka: ** hows it going?

_ Didn’t we have like a 15-hour time difference? _ It was like, 2 in the morning for Sokka. Not that Zuko would never stay up that late, it happened more often than he’d admit, but still. 

**Zuko: ** Shouldn’t you be sleeping?

**Sokka: ** aww you care about my sleep schedule. cute. too bad i dont have one

Zuko rolled his eyes, but he also knew there was a small smile on his lips. 

**Zuko: ** You really should be sleeping. 

**Sokka: ** answer the question zuko 

**Zuko: ** Fine. I’m bored. 

**Sokka: ** you’re bored easily

_ I wasn’t before I met you.  _ He buried that thought quickly though. 

**Zuko: ** I almost need to leave for practice though. In like an hour or so. 

**Zuko: ** But really, go to bed. 

**Sokka:** dont tell me what to do

**Zuko: ** Fine, then suffer tomorrow morning. 

**Sokka: ** jeez you sound like my dad

_ Dad _ . 

_ Fuck.  _

Zuko was supposed to call his father days ago, but he had been putting it off because he  _ really  _ didn’t want to hear a rant that he was definitely getting, about how stupid he was being. No doubt he’d seen the pictures of the show. Maybe Azula had even showed him, but he would’ve found them on his own too. And he kept putting off the calling and now it’s days later and well, he’s fucked. Ozai was going to be so angry if he just called now. 

_ Maybe I could just… act as I forgot? _

Well, he technically  _ did  _ forget. But he doubted his father would take that any better. 

For a second, Zuko thought about not calling at all on this whole trip, just live his life until he returned home, and just face the consequences later, but that would be a disaster no doubt. But even thinking about calling now was stressing him out. 

It is odd that not even Azula had sent him anything though. He would’ve expected some kind of scolding, or acknowledgement at least. 

But wow he was fucked. Silence never meant anything good in his household. Maybe silence was the worst part of all because all hell would break loose afterwards. 

His heartbeat went up and he knew it, and he was almost more nervous than he is before competitions because this really was a giant mistake. How could he be so stupid to not call when he was specifically told he had to?

**Sokka:** zuko? still there?

**Zuko: ** Sorry, got to go.

And he had his phone in his hand. He could just call. He  _ should  _ just call. But he couldn’t force his own fingers to open the app, nor could he force his own mind to think of things to say to his father. 

So, he did what he always did when he got stressed. What had always kept him somewhat sane. He did what he knows best how to do. What grounded him and what made the most sense to do. 

He grabbed his skates and stood up with the hotel card in hand, book still open on those same damn pages as hours ago, hoping the ice was free and available for him to skate on. 

~~

He nearly stumbled over his own feet with how fast he was running to the rink, but thank  _ God  _ it was open and no one else was on the ice yet. Hell, he wasn’t even wearing a jacket or sweater but at least he was already wearing his skating pants. Zuko reckoned he wouldn’t be needing his jacket anyway with the practice he had in mind. 

The air was cold against his skin and the distinct smell of an ice rink was present as ever. But it was normal and familiar and comfortable. Not all ice feels the same while skating on it, far from it. Ice takes a bit to get used to. Some ice is better for jumping than others are. But the feeling of being at home when he entered an ice rink is more universal. Every ice rink he ever skated on felt somewhat at home. The cold, the smell, the feeling of being able to swiftly move over the ice and take full control, that was home. 

So as soon as his blade hit the ice, he skated, and he skated, and he skated. Because that’s really all that mattered for now.  _ Skating _ . Zuko did lap after lap and jump after jump, falling, standing back up, another jump, another spin, his step sequence, another jump, another fall, another spin, another more successful jump. He wouldn’t allow himself for his thoughts to even stray away from skating for a second, because that was dangerous. No, he had to keep skating, and he had to keep thinking about skating, and about nothing else. 

~~

By the time the other skaters came on the ice for practice, bringing chatter and giggling with them, Zuko had finally somewhat calmed down again. He was tired and a bit worn out, but he had another three hours on the ice now and he couldn’t bring himself to care. For now, that’s really the only place he wanted to be. 

Sometimes it hit him hard how much he needed skating to keep him grounded. To keep him  _ alive.  _ Figure skating  _ was his life _ . Sometimes he genuinely didn’t know what to do without it. And, well, he was more than glad to have something like that. But it was also very much terrifying because one day it could all be gone, due to something as little as an injury, something he was no stranger to. And he was nowhere near ready to face that day. For now, in this moment, he was glad he didn’t have to either. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

Sokka wasn’t stupid or completely clueless. Sure, he could be a bit oblivious sometimes, but this situation was just… weird. Zuko and he were just having some banter, Sokka talks about fathers and suddenly the other disappears. Though to be fair, Zuko was at a show right now. He did say he’d have practice later. But then again, he had also said he still had an hour left before he had to go. 

He didn’t want to pry or to push Zuko, so he didn’t. Hell, he didn’t even want to draw conclusions, so he tried not to. 

But at the same time, it was late, and Sokka was kind of sleep-deprived, and couldn’t help but read into the messages perhaps a bit too much. 

And maybe, he was just a bit concerned. 

Perhaps he should just go to bed. 

~~

“How often do I need to tell you to go to bed earlier?” Katara asked him that morning at the rink, undoubtedly noticing the bags under his eyes as he flopped his bag onto the bench. 

“I dunno, like, 5 more times at least,” he replied unamused, pulling out his skates out of the bag. 

Just as his sister was about to reply, his phone vibrated in his hand. 

**Zuko:** Sorry about a couple of hours ago. 

**Zuko:** I had to go skate. 

Honestly, Sokka is still somewhat amused at the fact that Zuko used correct punctuation, grammar, and everything in his texts, but he hadn’t expected anything else. In fact, he couldn’t even imagine Zuko texting any other way. 

**Sokka** : thats alright skating is important

_ Skating is important? Really?  _ Obviously it’s important, they’re figure skaters! 

But also, if Zuko could raise questions about Sokka’s bad sleeping habits, then so could he. 

**Sokka: ** wait shouldnt you be sleeping now?

**Zuko: ** Sleep is for the weak. 

**Sokka: ** you calling me weak?

**Zuko: ** Considering you were texting me until like, what? 2 AM? And you didn’t seem to have slept many hours, based on your quick responses, I’m not calling you weak. I’d say, I’m calling you rather strong. 

**Zuko: ** Don’t take this as an invite to start sleeping even less though. I’m just saying. I didn’t call you weak. 

Was Sokka responding too quickly? Should he wait a bit longer next time to not seem desperate? 

But Sokka was never one to wait long before replying to messages. Otherwise, he’d just end up forgetting and he’d never reply. 

**Sokka: ** but you did tell me to go to bed last night, so thats kind of hypocritical isnt it

**Sokka: ** its literally after 2 am where you are now 

**Zuko: ** Never said I wasn’t a hypocrite. 

“You’re smiling at your phone,” Katara’s voice broke through his thoughts, “and you’re forgetting to put your skates on,” she rolled her eyes for good measure. 

“Right,” Sokka murmured. He probably should get on that. 

“It’s Zuko, isn’t it?” Her voice was rather soft as she asked this. 

But honestly, now really wasn’t the time, it was way too early. “Look, Katara—“

“No, it’s okay,” she said, “I didn’t mean it as an attack on you, it was just a question.”

“Oh,” he said a bit perplexed. Well, she  _ did  _ say Zuko wasn’t that bad last time, “well in that case, yes.”

She grabbed her water bottle and pack of tissues out of her bag. “You really should sleep more though.”

“That really wasn’t his fault,” he pried the laces of his left open before putting his foot in it. 

Already halfway through the door to the rink, she replied, “oh, I know.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw // maybe not necessarily a panic attack, but definitely some Ozai-related panicking in this chapter.  
~~  
I was watching Spinning Out on Netflix (wouldn’t really recommend tbh), and there was this quote; “It’s not really about love for me. Skating is like breathing, you know? I don’t particularly enjoy it, but can’t imagine not doing it. And if I stopped, I’d feel like drowning.” and wow if that’s not the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard. But anyways, I think it kind of fits this chapter well so I wanted to share it.


	13. Off-season part 3

_ZUKO_

Zuko didn’t end up calling his father, because he truly didn’t want to. He would just ignore this little problem for as long as he possibly could, and bare the consequences once he got back home. Or something like that. 

But he did end up calling his uncle. They hadn’t spoken a lot lately either, and while he’d maybe not admit it out loud, he quite missed his uncle. His uncle had always been there for him, really, and one of the few people in his life who didn’t pressure him so much. 

Then again, Zuko felt like sometimes he needed the pressure to skate well. But there’s a difference between a little bit of pressure and, well, what he tended to get. 

Iroh answered the phone almost immediately, which didn’t surprise Zuko at all. He had made sure to call at an acceptable hour after all. 

“Zuko! I’m so glad to hear from you!” The man said cheerfully on the phone. 

“Yeah,” he agreed because it  _ was _ good to hear him again. However, now he had started the call, he wasn’t exactly sure what to say anymore. 

And it probably showed because Iroh’s voice grew more worried, “Is something wrong?”

“No? Can’t I just call you without a reason?”

But was it really without a reason? 

“Well, you don’t exactly call often ‘ _ without a reason _ ’,” he said and well, perhaps he was right. Maybe Zuko should work on that. 

“How’s it going?” 

“Quite well, actually. But do you really want to talk about my tea shop? How’s skating? Hey, I saw some pictures of you with that boy online! On that… ah… what’s it called? The bird app? He looks nice!” And of course he had to bring up Sokka because that’s all everyone does lately. 

“He’s nice,” said Zuko instead. “He’s… my friend.”

“That’s wonderful Zuko!” And it sounded like he really meant it. 

“It’s called Twitter.”

“His name is Twitter?” Iroh chuckled. 

Zuko couldn’t help but sigh, because,  _ really? “ _ No uncle, the… ‘ _ bird app’ _ is called Twitter. His name is Sokka.”

How his uncle had even found out about Twitter, he didn’t know. Much less how he seemed somewhat successful in using it. Iroh was by no means stupid, he was a really smart man, but technology, and leave alone social networks, weren’t exactly his area of expertise. 

“You know what? That makes more sense. He looks like a Sokka. Anyways, the point was, he seems nice.”

He swallowed and ignored the tight feeling in his chest he felt all of the sudden. “Have you hear from father lately? Or Azula?” he didn’t really mean to change the topic like that, but well, it was what had been on his mind. 

His uncle’s silence that lasted for seconds wasn’t a good sign, “I think you should call either of them if you want to know that.”

“I don’t want to,” Zuko’s voice was just above a whisper, so much so it might have not even been fully audible on the other side of the line, “I don’t really want to know. And I really don’t want to call them either.”

“I don’t blame you for that,” said Iroh, “and I won’t make you either. But it’s not my place to say something.”

Something was happening, potentially something bad. Definitely something bad for Zuko. And his uncle wasn’t going to tell him over the phone, so much was clear. He  _ had  _ to call his father or sister if he wanted to know. 

And he wanted to know. 

But not that much. He’d manage. 

“That’s okay,” said Zuko, “I’ll figure it out once I get home.”

“I’m sure you will, I believe in you,” Iroh started and uncle hummed briefly before he let out a small gasp. “Oh, uhm, we have a small problem in the kitchen I need to go now.”

“I’ll call you soon,” and both of them knew that probably wasn’t exactly true, but Zuko swore he’d try at least. 

~~

“You alright?” Mai asked when they were on the ice the next day. “You seem really out of it.”

And it seemed colder on the rink than most days, but that might just be because Zuko hadn’t really managed to get a lot of sleep in last night after the conversation with his uncle. 

“You worry too much,” said Mai, because of course she did. 

“You always say that.”

“You know I’m right.”

And yeah, maybe she was right. But that still didn’t stop him from worrying. If he could stop, he would, but he couldn’t. 

“Stop worrying.”

_ Believe me, I’ve tried.  _

~~

It only hit him later, about a day and a half later, at 2 in the morning, what had happened with Ty Lee and Mai a couple of days back in Mai’s hotel room. 

And wow, did he not see that coming. 

In hindsight, it made sense, he guessed. And he was happy for them. They were his friends and they deserved happiness. But he was scared for them too because the world can be a cruel place. And the world of figure skating even more so. 

He’d talk about it with them later. 

But at the same time, there was a certain amount of relieve now he realized. He wasn’t alone. 

~~

  
  


_ SOKKA _

  
  


**Zuko: ** Will you watch the live stream of Prince Ice World tonight? 

**Sokka: ** you do realize we have a 15 hour time difference right?

**Sokka: ** i cant watch every single show

**Zuko: ** So? Will you? 

He should say no. Of course he should. The show is literally in the middle of the night. 

But then again, Sokka never was one to go to bed early. 

**Sokka: ** will it be worth it to be sleep deprived?

**Zuko: ** Maybe. No promises. 

And well? Why not?

~~

So apparently, Zuko had somehow managed to convince the organisation he could do his crazy fire act. 

And, well, Sokka would be lying if he said he wasn’t thoroughly impressed. Maybe it was the 2-am talking, but _ wow.  _

Zuko was holding something in the shape of a big fan in both hands, with 4 spokes that were lit with fire, and well it certainly looked impressive. 

_ How is this even possible? _

Zuko looked… almost natural with the fire. Zuko was a good skater, no doubt, and he always looked liked he really belonged on the ice. Well, most skaters do, but Zuko especially. 

And Zuko being such a natural on the ice, combined with being such a natural with the fire… it was truly something else. The contradiction of having both such control over fire  _ and  _ over ice. As if those two things were meant to be combined. 

At that moment, Sokka was convinced Zuko was one of the only people that could ever pull that off this well. 

It looked different because the way Zuko acted with the fire was different. It wasn’t bad, far from it, but it was mesmerizing. 

How Zuko managed to jump with these things, he’ll truly never understand. How do you even cross your arms like that?

And the  _ spins.  _

It looked amazing. Everything. 

All he could manage was to sent Zuko a text, simply stating “ _ that was awesome! :D” _ . 

~~

The fact that the video of the show went viral didn’t surprise Sokka one bit. 

The fact that it was the main thing everyone was talking about the day afterwards at the ice rink wasn’t either. 

~~

“I take it you saw that video of Zuko?” Asked Katara the next day at the rink. 

Aang replied before he could, saying “that looked really awesome! I wish I could do something like that!”

“I’m sure you could, if you practised,” Jet swooped in, holding only his skated in his one hand, no bag or anything before he flopped down on the bench.

“What makes you think I knew?” Sokka asked his sister. 

“You want to tell me you didn’t?”

“Oh no, I did,” he confirmed. “I didn’t know he’d be able to convince the organisers and the rink owners though.”

Katara nodded her head at that, “I can’t believe they actually let him do it.”

“You have to admit it looked pretty cool though,” he shrugged, pulling extra hard on his laces as he was tying his skates. He really needed new boots soon, these were losing their strength. 

“I wonder how one decided to start practising something like that,” Aang chimed in, “like, do you just wake up one day, thinking ‘you know what I want to do? Get some torches and skate with them’?”

Jet laughed out loud at that, “you have to be pretty damn crazy to try that, that’s for sure. It’s a fire hazard for everyone involved. Genuinely, how the fuck is that allowed on an ice rink?” 

“Hey, he knows what he’s doing!” Sokka defended Zuko. 

But Jet really wasn’t having it, “oh? What makes you think that? What proof do you have?” 

“Well, everything went well, didn’t it?”

“Sokka,” Jet laughed again, in a patronizing way and wow was Sokka starting to hate that laugh, “the dude has a giant burn  _ on his face _ . Think about it.”

And, well, he wasn’t  _ wrong _ but still. Was that from trying things such as that? 

Katara considered this for a second. “You reckon that’s from—“

“I don’t know,” Sokka admitted. “He’d had that scar since forever though, since before we were in Junior’s. I doubt he was trying those acts already by then?”

“Isn’t that even worse though? Guy had a giant fucking burn on his face, still decided to do  _ triple jumps  _ while  _ holding fire _ . How is that something a sane person would ever do?” 

“Just admit you don’t like Zuko, Jet,” and Sokka rolled his eyes for good measure. 

“I don’t see why you’re suddenly such a big fan of him. What happened? Please do tell, I’m intrigued.”

“I’m not telling you shit,” Sokka said defensively because honestly, he barely knew himself but he wasn’t about to tell Jet that. 

“Guys,” Katara’s voice sounded pleading, and Sokka put one final tie in his laces, but still made a point of glaring at Jet while doing so. 

Aang just stood up now his skates were tied as well, “well, it was cool and spectacular regardless. I’d like to believe he knows what he’s doing.”

And at that moment, Sokka could do nothing but agree. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

  
  


After that, things started going a bit better. Zuko was back in the routine of the shows and the practices and hanging out with Ty Lee and Mai and sometimes even Suki, which was probably just as big of a surprise to her as it was to him. But Suki was kind of cool, in her own way. 

Still, he hung out more with Ty Lee and Mai, and he didn’t bring up what he knew, but he was pretty sure they realized he knew so it’s all good. And he just wanted to make sure they knew he supported them in their relationship, but he also didn’t want to pry. If they kept it a secret, there must be some reason behind that. 

Weeks passed and he didn’t hear from anyone in his family and Zuko honestly couldn’t bring himself to care. 

  
  


And then there was Sokka.  _ Sokka _ , who would send him memes at one in the morning, or random pictures of things that were happening around him. Pictures from various ice rinks in all the states and places he held shows, pictures from other him with other skaters. Anything really. 

Zuko wasn’t a picture person. He almost never takes pictures, so he doesn’t send any pictures back to Sokka either. But he does answer. 

And maybe, he looked forward to the day Sokka would be back to doing the same ice shows as him. A day which was constantly nearing, and now, it was less than a week away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iroh on Twitter, I can get behind that concept.
> 
> Just so we’re on the same page, I’m talking about [ these ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_fan) kinds of torches.
> 
> Anyways from now on I can update weekly again! So for now, I will upload one chapter every thursday.


	14. Off-season part 4

_ ZUKO  _

Zuko had almost two weeks in between the  _ Ice Prince world  _ and  _ Fantasy on Ice _ shows, but he couldn’t bring himself to really do much outside of skating and sleeping, and maybe some studying. The shows had been a lot of fun, really, a lot more than he had been expecting even, but it was also extremely tiring. 

But in a week, Sokka would arrive for the Fantasy on Ice shows, and Zuko was way more excited about that than he perhaps should be. Though he really wished his friend wasn’t so mysterious about when exactly he would be arriving. 

~~

Zuko groaned at the knock on his hotel room door. Who the fuck knocks on someone’s door at 4 am? It’s times like these where he really wished he was more of a deep sleeper, maybe then he wouldn’t have even heard the knocks in the first place. 

Ignoring the knocking also wasn’t working, as it just kept going on and on and, man, did the person on the other side not give up.  _ Fine.  _ Zuko groaned some more as he dragged himself out of bed and up to the door, not even bothering to look through the little spyhole. 

“What,” he said grumpily as he swung open the door, blinking a couple of times against the bright light of the hallway. 

“Good morning to you too,” sounded Sokka’s voice, way too excited for the current hour. When Zuko finally took a good look at him he saw the excitement in his voice matched the excitement on his face. Leave it to Sokka to be this excited after a long flight at this hour in the morning. 

“ _ Morning _ ? It’s not the morning. It’s _ the middle of the night. _ ” And he was excited to see Sokka, really, he was. But let’s not forget it was 4 am. “How do you know my hotel room?” 

“Lucky guess?” He grinned and Zuko just cocked his eyebrow, “fine, Mai told me. Aren’t you happy to see me,  _ friend? _ ” Sokka’s grin only spread at that and fuck, maybe having friends was a bad idea after all. 

“I can’t believe she betrayed me just like that,” he shook his head. 

“Anyways,” Sokka began and then threw his arms around Zuko, pulling him into a tight hug. 

Maybe it was the fact that it was  _ 4 am.  _ Or maybe it was the fact that Sokka’s return hadn’t fully registered in his head yet, but all Zuko could do was melt into the embrace and lightly pat Sokka’s back. 

~~

During the first practice for Fantasy on Ice, of course it was time again for  _ group choreography.  _ Oh did Zuko hate that with a passion. 

And he was already running late, to begin with. Being late, especially in the morning, was not something that happened to him a lot. But then again, it wasn’t his fault that Sokka had woken him up at 4 am, was it? 

So there he was, running late. 

Everyone was already on the ice by the time he rushed on, gloves still in his hand rather than on his hand, but he was glad to see they hadn’t done much yet. That’s the last thing he needed right now. At least he had practised on this ice before today on his own, that was something. 

His eyes scanned the group of new skaters, and everyone was already paired up.  _ Great.  _ Pair numbers again. 

Looking for Mai, he found that she had already been paired up with Ty Lee,  _ the traitor _ . Zuko couldn’t really blame them, but still. Usually, Mai and he suffered through these types of choreography together. It was their thing. 

And then of course, Sokka had to swoop in. 

“Zuko! Do the couple choreography with me!” Sokka skated towards him with his arms wide open, and then finally slung his arm over the other’s shoulder. 

_ It should be illegal to look this good on this little sleep.  _

Zuko quickly looked over at Katara and Aang, who also seemed pretty awake for people that apparently only arrived a couple of hours ago and had just been on a really long flight. 

“Uhm, I don’t know if that’s—,” he tried but Sokka cut him off. 

“Oh, come on! Please? I know you usually pair up with Mai but look, she and Ty Lee seem happy, don’t they? It’s nice to mix things up from time to time, right?” 

_ No, it’s not.  _ Zuko wasn’t a fan of mixing things up. 

But the problem wasn’t so much skating with Sokka (in fact, he rather liked the idea of skating with Sokka, which was a scary thought on its own), it was the fact that he was  _ really _ bad at these types of things and maybe, just maybe, he didn’t want Sokka to laugh at him. Especially not when it comes to skating. Zuko takes pride in his skating. It’s the one thing he’s supposedly really good at. 

“I’m not good at these types of things,” admitted Zuko, “anything that’s not solo skating that is.”

Sokka chuckled, “oh, believe me, I know. I think everyone here does, no offence.”

“Wow, thanks Sokka,” Zuko rolled his eyes, ignoring the heat that was rising to his cheeks, and carefully removed Sokka’s arm from his shoulders. 

“But see, this is great because I am good at these types of things. Which is why we’ll make a great team. Don’t you trust me?”

“You don’t ever give up, do you?” 

“You know me too well,” Sokka laughed and grabbed his hand, skating closer towards the choreographer who was still trying to figure out the sound system in the rink. 

So, that was a thing they were doing, apparently. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

Mai hadn’t lied when she had warned him Zuko was bad at any choreography that wasn’t done solo. Though the warning wasn’t really needed, as Zuko’s face often already gave away how uncomfortable he was, even though a live broadcast. 

Sokka had been prepared to help him though, or so he thought, but well… this wasn’t some great success he had hoped for. 

“It’s the choctaw first,” he said over the music, when Zuko did a twizzle. 

Zuko groaned, “I  _ know _ .”

“Then why didn’t you do it.”

“I warned you I was bad at this.”

“I know you did,” Sokka couldn’t help but smile. But Zuko was trying at least. And it was somewhat cute. In a weird kind of Zuko way. 

What was definitely cute was when Zuko finally got it right, and his face actually  _ lit up.  _ Seeing Zuko this happy was a rare occurrence, and Sokka was so glad he had been a part of it. 

Sokka looked over at Mai and Ty Lee for a second, only to see Mai looking back at him with a small smile on her face. ‘ _ He gets like this sometimes’ _ she mouthed (or at least, that was Sokka’s best guess as to what she mouthed. Lip reading was never his forté). 

_ Cute.  _

~~

“I’m not sure what you did with Zuko,” Suki began, about a day later when they were hanging out in a small restaurant near the rink before practise, “but he’s really different from how he was last season. In a good way. We even talked a couple of times during Prince Ice World during the past few weeks. As in, he came to me to talk during practice.  _ Small talk. _ ”

It had been too long since he and Suki really hung out. But they didn’t speak often outside of skating-related events, so he tried to make the most out of it whenever they did. 

“See? That’s what I’ve been telling everyone. He’s not that bad.”

She shook her head. “I never said he was. To be fair, I never really knew him before, though I heard the stories. He’s just different from last season from what I see. I think it’s good. For both of you.”

“Yeah, I think so too,” he admitted. 

~~

He had been expecting Zuko to show up in his hotel room, later that day. Well, he had basically invited Zuko to come over after he had talked to the organisation. Based on the hard knocking on the door though, that conversation didn’t go amazingly well. 

“They’re not letting me skate with fire,” Zuko groaned as he shuffled past Sokka the moment he had opened the door. “Well, I had expected it really, I’m surprised the other show even let me do it. But it had been such a hit with the fans though. It’s unfair.” 

“Well, it was really impressive, I’ll be the first to admit that,” Sokka pulled a chair from under the desk to sit on it, just as Zuko threw himself on his bed. “But I also can’t blame the organisation for judging it as too unsafe.”

“You liked it?” Came Zuko’s questioning voice. 

“Very much so,” Sokka admitted because really, what was the point in hiding that anyway? Zuko had a real skill he had found there, and there was no reason to keep his opinion from Zuko on the matter. “I can’t say I wasn’t scared for you as you did it, but by the end, I think, if there’s anyone I’d trust to do things like that, it’ be you. You’re talented at it.”

Zuko snorted. “Ah yes, the great talent of being able to skate with fire.”

“Don’t sound so sarcastic, it is a talent. Not a lot of people could do that, even out those who could technically do all the elements you did, only a few could do it like  _ that _ ,” and Sokka realized he was probably being a bit  _ too  _ honest here. He hoped it didn’t creep Zuko out for some reason. 

But Zuko’s voice was soft as he said, “I guess. If you say so.” 

~~

In the next few weeks, Zuko and he had found somewhat of a rhythm. They’d go to practice, do the shows, sometimes after a show they’d go out and go get some food. Other time’s, Zuko would go hang out with Mai and Ty Lee, whilst Sokka hung out with Aang, Suki, or Katara. Sometimes, Zuko would even talk to Aang, Suki, or Katara too. Definitely a lot more than Sokka had anticipated. One time even, all seven of them went out for dinner together and they honestly a lot of fun. And it was just really great they could all hang out like this. 

And then other times, times like these, they  _ studied together.  _ Most of the time, they’d be in Zuko’s hotel room, just sitting there for a couple of hours, in a comfortable silence, as they tried finishing their coursework or prepare for their exams. 

Which was very weird, in a good way. If you had told Sokka about a year ago he’d be studying with Zuko in between ice shows, he’d have laughed in your face. 

Yet here they were, in Zuko’s hotel room as usual, with Zuko sitting at the desk and Sokka sitting on the small sofa, typing away. 

And it was strangely comfortable, all of this. It had been from the start. Actually, perhaps he even studied better with Zuko than without him. Sokka never had the best attention span especially when there were more fun things to do, but now, he was actually getting things done. 

Well, most of the time he was getting things done at least, because now, after more than two hours of looking for the stupid bug in his code and not finding the damn thing, he was close to throwing his laptop out of the window from frustration. 

He would never _ actually  _ throw his laptop out of the window, of course, but  _ wow _ he needed a break. He groaned loudly, removing the laptop out of his lap and placing it on the table. 

“Stressed?” Zuko simply asked without turning around. 

“Annoyed,” corrected Sokka, “don’t get me wrong, I love what I do and I’m happy I’m majoring in computer science, but  _ fuck _ , might just have to hand in my code with the bug still in it. Don’t know, but the deadline is tonight. It’s only a small bug anyway. It’s better than handing in nothing, right?” 

Zuko merely hummed in response as he kept staring at his own work. Sokka stood up, stretching himself out completely for the first time in hours before walking over the desk. 

“So, what are you doing?” He asked, leaning over Zuko’s shoulder. 

Only then, after a few moments of Zuko not replying, he realized how close their faces were to each other, and leaned back a bit again. Just. To give Zuko his personal space and all of that. 

“An essay,” if he noticed how close they were, it didn’t show. 

“How many words?” 

“About three thousand.”

“Oof, good luck with that,” Sokka turned around again, and then flopped on the bed. He was just so  _ tired.  _ It had been over two weeks already, but he hadn’t had any time to properly deal with the jet lag or catch up on sleep because of his busy schedule. 

“You’re going to fall asleep on my bed, aren’t you?” Zuko sighed. 

“Of course not,” he promised, before closing his eyes. Just, to let them rest. Or something. For a couple of hours. 

~~

Fantasy on ice was his favourite of the shows, by far. Amazing new crowds every week, nice hotels, nice ice rinks, and all of his friends were there. 

Practices were always a lot of fun. They didn’t only practice for the shows though, they’d also do regular practices to make sure they maintained their jumps over the summer. But it was still different from practices at home, with his coach not being there, and most of his friends being there. 

That didn’t stop Sokka from trying new jumps though. Even though his coach had told him once he probably shouldn’t be doing new jumps without him. 

After the fifth quad lutz attempt, however, he was kind of starting to lose hope. 

“That, my friend, is not really a lutz,” he suddenly heard Zuko’s voice from behind him, and Sokka turned around just in time to see Mai smack his arm, looking at him in a  _ ‘Zuko! Think before you speak!’- _ manner. “I’m sorry. It’s just… a pretty clear inside edge before you take off.”

“I  _ know _ ,” replied Sokka in an annoyed tone. More annoyed at his lutz than at Zuko though. It was the main reason he avoided doing lutzes in competition. He was working on it, and lately, the technical panel had been pretty lenient with edge calls, but he still didn’t want to risk it. He’d rather keep his programs filled with correct jumping techniques. “I’m working on it.”

“I can see that,” Zuko came closer and placed his hand on Sokka’s shoulder, pulling him towards the spot on the ice where he had taken off one of his lutzes before. “I mean, I’ve seen worse I guess.”

“Wow, you’re really good at compliments,” Sokka joked, but at least Zuko was trying. Or at least Sokka thought he was trying. 

Mai cut in before Zuko could. “Zuko, sweetie, I know you’re trying to help but it doesn’t sound as helpful as you probably think it does.”

“No, that’s alright, he’s not wrong. But I know I tend to flutz,” Sokka said, looking at the edge on the ice, and then taking up a bit of speed whilst skating backwards, just standing on that left outside edge with his arms in the correct position, just to feel the edge. 

“Yeah, like that,” the other gestured towards his outside edge and Sokka couldn’t help but laugh. He knew full well how an outside edge worked, thank you very much. It’s just that knowing how something is done versus actually doing something is a world of difference. 

“Bad lutz technique is one of the hardest things to change, I feel like,” Mai said. As far as he knew, she too tended to avoid lutzes for that exact reason too. However, with ladies doing fewer quads, and with the rules making sure people wouldn’t to the same type of triple jump six times in a row, it was harder for her than it was for him to avoid it. Though Mai’s edge was flat most of the time, and she received more ‘unclear edge’ calls than ‘inside edge’ calls. “Half of the skaters struggle with it. It’s what makes lutzes so hard.” 

“Hey, at least the two of you have better skating skills and honestly, better program components than I do in general,” Zuko shrugged. “Lutzes are one thing, but program components are always extremely important.”

“You’re getting better too though,” he replied. “You’ve been working on that this season and it shows.”

“It’s still not that good,” he tried, and Sokka would heavily disagree with that. 

It probably also showed that he would’ve disagreed because Mai patted Zuko’s back, saying, “sorry, Zuko here really isn’t good at accepting compliments, he should work on  _ that _ ,” before skating off again. 

“You know, I like her,” he told Zuko. 

“Who doesn’t?”

~~

Sokka had found his new favourite pastime too, and it was driving his fans crazy by posting Instagram stories of him and Zuko hanging out. 

They  _ really  _ liked it. And Zuko hadn’t even really been against the idea. If Sokka was being honest, he had fully expected Zuko to tell him no the first time, and he wouldn’t have pushed because he wasn’t about to put pictures up without the other’s consent. But unexpectedly, he had agreed that first time. And the next. And the next. And the other 6 times. And it was kind of funny, Sokka supposed, how much everyone online was having the time of their lives just because of those pictures. Seeing his Twitter and Instagram feeds in pure chaos just because of him was, well, a lot of fun. 

But Sokka agreed with their fans, they were nice pictures. Otherwise he wouldn’t have posted them. The amount of ‘bad’ pictures on his phone that didn’t make it to social media was piling up too, though he did privately sent them all to Zuko too, just in case if he wanted them. 

So, after a few weeks of shows, the Instagram stories became almost a daily occurrence. Not only with Zuko though, but Sokka would also post pictures with the other skaters. It was a pretty balanced thing. 

But the ones with Zuko created the most chaos online. 

He also noticed that any time there was a picture with Zuko on his Instagram story, the other would screenshot it, and Sokka’s heart would always skip a beat any time that happened. And for now he wasn’t willing to try and understand what that meant, because it was confusing. 

At least he apparently wasn’t alone in the opinion that they were nice pictures. 

~~

_ ZUKO  _

During one of the last shows that would be broadcasted, during the finale, Sokka grabbed his shoulder, looking as excited as he always did post-show. Though, the look in his eyes made Zuko nervous already. 

“What?” 

“I dare you to do a quad axel,” he grinned. 

Zuko blinked back in response. “What? Now?” 

“Oh, come on? Please? You’re practising it, right?” 

“Well, yeah, but…”  _ we’ll have six weeks of people on Twitter putting the video in 0.25x speed just to see if it was downgraded or underrotated again like last time.  _

“Please?” Sokka pleaded, “we’ll do a quad competition, I’ll go first!” 

Before Zuko could even respond, Sokka skated off, going to the setup of his quad loop. 

It wasn’t unusual for skaters to start jumping or doing quad battles during the finale of a show. Often even, and Zuko would participate almost always. But quad axel, well… 

He hadn’t practised that in a few weeks, and people were still talking about his attempt at the gala that first time. People were still guessing when he would add it in his program too. 

Sokka landed his quad loop, and the crowd cheered loudly, and so did the other skaters that were still crowded in the middle of the rink. Before Zuko could even move, Aang skated off with an excited look on his face, attempting a quad toe, which he sadly enough fell. However, it did seem round so that’s good, Zuko guessed. It wouldn’t be long now until he could add it to his program, definitely something for next season. 

“Come on, it’s your turn!” Sokka returned to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the crowd of skaters as no one else moved, and then pushing him on his way to his axel setup. 

And well, now Zuko was already out there, what else could he do? Everyone was expecting him to jump now. He could, of course, go for another type quad. A lutz perhaps. Hell, maybe even a flip. But Sokka had asked him to do quad axel, and well, he kind of trusted Sokka. He didn’t think Sokka had asked him to let him fail. Perhaps Sokka had asked because he really thought Zuko had a shot at somehow doing a somewhat good job. 

Also, as annoying as the attention towards his quad axel was, it also still felt good to be this relevant within the fandom, even if he wouldn’t admit it out loud. 

So, he went for it. He set himself up for the axel and jumped as high as he could, pulling his arms and legs as close to his body as he could. 

Until he landed on the ice. Hard. On his butt. 

Well, it’s not like he had actually expected something else. 

“That was nearly round!” He heard over the cheering as Sokka and Katara skated towards him, both looking in awe. 

Zuko quickly got up, looking at the ice to the spot where his blade had hit the ice, crowding over it together with Katara and Sokka. 

“I can’t believe it,” Katara said in complete awe, which wasn’t something Zuko was used to hearing, “Zuko, that’s amazing! That was just about underrotated! You only need 1/4th of a rotation more! How is this possible?”

Sokka’s arm flew around his shoulder again. “Wow, it was already amazing during the gala practise but now it’s even better! You could get it round next season!” 

Katara and Sokka’s excitement was rubbing off on him, and he almost felt the need to pull Sokka into a full-blown hug. But they were still on air and he didn’t want to push his luck too much. The chance of his father or his sister seeing this were big. 

Still, he looked up to Sokka’s face now and said, without really thinking, “I promise you, I will jump it in competition sometime next season.”

~~

It hit Zuko hard then, that in a week he’d be going back home. He had done his best to ignore the concept of ‘ _ home _ ’ for the past few months, as ice rinks in general are what felt like home. But he was going  _ home home.  _ Or what he should be actually seeing as home anyways. Not the vague concept of skateable ice, but back to his father and sister and his bedroom and ‘ _ his _ ’ ice rink. And he was nervous and stressed about it, and it probably really showed. 

“Hey, Zuko, are you okay?” Sokka asked him worriedly after one of the last practices before one of the last few shows. 

“I’m fine,” he replied, but he knew just as well that his voice betrayed him. 

Sokka smiled at him with a reassuring look on his face and said, “come on, let's go hang out at the park for a bit or something.”

And Zuko had already noticed weeks ago that he had a really hard time telling Sokka no whenever the other asked him something, and he definitely wasn’t planning on saying no this time either. Not when Sokka was clearly doing his best to make him feel less stressed. 

“You want to talk about it?” Sokka asked later as they were walking through some nearby park. At least it was rather sunny outside. 

“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” he admitted, “it’s a lot.”

“Hey,” Sokka said, looking back at him, before gently grabbing his hand, only to squeeze in it once and let go afterwards, “you don’t have to talk about it. But if you want to, I’m here to listen.”

And at this point, Zuko wasn’t even sure anymore if his heart was almost beating out of his chest out of the extreme anxiety he felt about returning home or if his newly acquired friend had something to do with it as well. 

“Well, I’m returning home soon,” he started, hoping that would explain enough, “and I kind of haven’t called my father or sister at all ever since World Team Trophy. And I don’t think that’s going to go over well,” he’s only ever spoken about his family situation with Mai, and that was mostly because she already knew almost everything anyway without him telling her. But he trusted Sokka. He wasn’t planning on explaining everything, or not even a big part of it, but he also wasn’t anxious about the other finding out more information than he probably should know. 

_ Fuck. I really do trust Sokka.  _

“Why isn’t your sister doing shows anyway?” Asked Sokka instead. 

“I don’t think she finds it beneficial enough. If it doesn’t help her win in the long run, she’s not interested.”

Sokka hummed, “I’d disagree. I think doing shows can help you in the long run. Your interpretation got a lot better after you started doing shows. For me, it helped me control my nerves more in front of a bigger audience. But then again, your sister is… well. I don’t actually know a lot about your sister so who knows,” he shrugged. 

“Tell me about your family,” Zuko asked instead. “If you want to. No pressure though.”

“Oh. I live with my GranGran with Katara because my father is in the military. But he comes back home every so often. He’s great.”

Zuko briefly wondered what happened with Sokka’s mother, but if he didn’t mention it himself, there was probably a reason to. 

“Katara is nice enough.”

“She wasn’t the biggest fan of you back when the season started, but she starting to like you,” Sokka smiled brightly at him whilst saying that, for some reason.

“Not going to lie, I still don’t know why you decided to befriend me,” Zuko said, because it was all still very confusing to him. “I was never exactly nice to you before. And we had our fair share of competitions against each other.”

Sokka pressed his lips in a thin line as he stayed silent for a few moments. “Honestly, I still don’t fully know why I decided on it either. I don’t have great impulse control though, so it just happened at first. And then I was intrigued I suppose. But you know what, Zuko? You’re not that bad at all. I don’t regret it.”

Genuinely not knowing what to reply to that, he simply nodded and stared back down the path they were walking. 

In the end, it was Sokka who picked the conversation back up. “Do you wish I hadn’t?” 

And Zuko didn’t even think about lying about it for a moment. “Never.”

~~

A few hours later, Mai and he were just lying on the bed, both on their backs facing the ceiling. It had been a really long day. 

“I’m so tired,” he said. 

“Then go bed.”

“You’re lying on my bed.”

“Well, so are you.”

“You know what I mean,” Zuko rolled his eyes. 

“You want me to leave?” Her voice neutral. 

“Do you miss Ty Lee?” He asked then. They hadn’t really talked about it yet, and if Mai didn’t want to then he wouldn’t push it. But if she did want to, then he was definitely going to listen. 

Mai didn’t reply for a couple of seconds. “She only left last week. We’ve spent the past two months together. We’ll see each other soon again too. We’ll manage.”

“Are you coming back to Moscow after these shows?” 

“Probably not,” she said, “I’m going home for a month or so first. It’s been a while.”

Zuko just hummed in response. That wasn’t exactly a great situation either. Lombardia Trophy was in  _ September.  _ With Mai gone for at least the month of July, and Ty Lee said she wouldn’t return until late August, he’d be alone with his sister at the rink for a while. And he definitely wasn’t ready for that. At all. 

He kind of wasn’t ready to not see Sokka until Lombardia Trophy either. But they’d text, probably. Sokka seemed to be a fan of that if the past few months taught him anything. 

“How did you know when you liked Ty Lee?” He heard himself ask before he even realized it. 

“I think I realized years and years ago,” and her voice was softer than normal. Mai didn’t often speak about her feelings, neither of them does, but they have their moments. 

“When did it happen then?” 

“Couple of months ago? At four continents I believe,” said Mai. 

Zuko was dense, perhaps, but how should he have known when they hooked up at a competition he wasn’t even at? “Okay, well, I know I’m dense and I figured it out late, but in my defence, I wasn’t at four continents.”

“We were super obvious afterwards though. Well, not in public I suppose. That’d be dangerous. But in front of you and Azula. I’m pretty sure your sister noticed.” 

He rolled his eyes. “Azula notices everything.”

“You’re not wrong.”

After that silence fell as both of them still lied on the bed staring at the ceiling. There was a weird stain on the roof and Zuko briefly wondered how the fuck that got there. 

“You like Sokka, don’t you?” Mai finally asked. 

And he should say no. Every bone in his body is telling him to say no.  _ I don’t like Sokka.  _ Of course he doesn’t. Why would he like Sokka?

Except, perhaps, he did kind of like Sokka. Or maybe he didn’t. He just  _ didn’t know.  _

He could also act as if he didn’t understand her question right. As if he thought that she meant liking as in platonically liking. But the both of them knew that’s not what she had meant. Of course Zuko platonically liked Sokka. Everyone could see that by now. 

“I’m not sure,” he admitted in the tiniest voice, kind of hoping Mai wouldn’t hear. 

Of course she did.

“You’ll figure it out. The both of you will figure it out.”

This conversation turned uncomfortable real quick, but there was no point in trying to stop it now anyway. “I’m kind of hoping we don’t. It would definitely be easier.”

“Listen, Zuko, I know you’re scared. And for very good reasons. I know you don’t want to talk about it and we both know how your dad is. But you also have to think about your own happiness. And the two of you can be subtle, he doesn’t have to know. No one needs to know if you don’t want that.”

Zuko couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re running way ahead of yourself here. I doubt he likes me. Hell, I doubt he even likes guys. In fact, I think he might like Suki.”

“Well, I can’t help you with that, I don’t know them as you do. Well, Sokka at least. Suki’s nice, we hang out sometimes. Well, it’s always Ty Lee’s idea but… maybe you should talk to him.”

“Yeah right,” said Zuko, “very funny.”

Mai groaned, “you’re just gonna pine for months to come aren’t you.”

“I’m not pining!” 

“Right. We’ll see how that goes.” 

~~

_ SOKKA _

It was only on that last night of that last show before he had to return back home, Sokka realized what he had been feeling this whole time. 

In hindsight, perhaps it had been obvious. In hindsight, perhaps he should’ve seen it coming. But he really hadn’t. 

He liked Zuko.  _ Liked  _ Zuko. Now that was a plot twist. 

But now he realized, he  _ had _ to talk about it. Otherwise he’d go insane keeping it for himself. He needed someone to talk it out with him and tell him that he was being stupid. 

“Katara, I’m  _ fucked _ ,” he announced as soon as she opened her hotel room door. 

His sister looked back at him in concern as he walked past her to sit on the bed. “What?”

He waited for her to sit down next to him before announcing his recent discovery. “I… I think I like Zuko.”

Out of all the things Sokka would’ve expected her to do, laughing was not one of them. “Congrats, you’re officially the last one to know.”

“What? How do you mean  _ I’m the last one to know? _ ” He hissed. How the fuck could he be the last one to realize  _ his own feelings _ ?

Katara rolled her eyes, but she still had a smile on her face. “Oh, come on. Even people online knew! Don’t tell me you haven’t read the comments on your pictures.”

“No, I have, but like… do they really actually think that?”

Now her smile faded as she rolled her eyes again, “wow, you are dense.”

“Does he know?” Panic suddenly filled his brain. Fuck, if Zuko knew, he surely would never want to hang out with Sokka ever again. What if he thought that was the reason he had befriended him in the first place?

“Okay, good point. Correction, you’re not the last one to know. Zuko is even more oblivious than you are,” and with that, relieve flooded over Sokka again. At least he had that going for him. 

“Are you sure?”

“Positive, the boy is extremely oblivious,” she patted his back. “So? What are you going to do?”

“Uhm, ignore it? It’ll go away, right?”

Katara blinked back at him. “You’re… going to ignore it? Shouldn’t you like, maybe talk to him?”

“That’s a terrible idea!” Talk to him? And what? Say ‘ _ hey Zuko, I think I might like you but no big deal right, this won’t stand in the way of our friendship, right? This weird friendship that I started out of nowhere anyway’ _ , no thanks. 

“Yeah sure,  _ communication  _ is terrible advice,” said Katara, “do you hear yourself talk sometimes?” 

“You know what? Maybe I liked it better back when you couldn’t stand Zuko,” he told her.  _ Talking.  _ Yeah. No. 

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“Yeah,” Sokka admitted then. Because it was nice to have his sister at least tolerate Zuko, he guessed. “But I’m still not taking your advice. This conversation never happened!” And just like that, he stalked out of her hotel room. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re getting somewhere, my friends.


	15. Off-season part 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See end notes for trigger warning

_ ZUKO _

He was already packing as another knock was heard on the door, and as Zuko yelled “come in!” he briefly wondered when he had become the type of person that leaves their hotel room door open should their friends want to hang out. Hell, he even wondered for a second when he had become the type of person that would have friends that actually  _ wanted  _ to come over to his hotel room. Outside of Mai and Ty Lee that is. 

Of course, to no surprise, it was Sokka who ended up opening the door. “Are you packing?”

“Yeah,” Zuko didn’t look up as he lifted a shirt that had been lying on the floor for the past few days and threw it into his luggage. “I’m flying back home tonight.” 

He’s not a messy person per se, but it happened from time to time. Especially in small hotel rooms, he had difficulty keeping everything neat. 

“Oh, tonight already?” Sokka’s voice sounds rather odd as he says this. “What’s your first competition next season?”

“I’m doing Lombardia again,” and Zuko was trying,  _ really really  _ trying not to think about how it was only June and Lombardia Trophy was only in September and in about 24hours he’d be back home with his father who will no doubt be angry as fuck, and his sister who will, well, who knows what Azula will say? “You too?” He hoped his voice didn’t sound too hopeful as he asked that. 

“Yup,” Sokka smiled, “I guess I see you in September then?” 

“That’s… a really long time from now,” said Zuko more quietly as he went to the bathroom to pick up his toiletry bag and throw it in his luggage. 

He heard Sokka chuckle, “if I didn’t know any better I’d start thinking you’d miss me.”

All Zuko could do was roll his eyes, even though he was standing with his back turned to Sokka. Admitting it to himself that,  _ yes _ , he would miss Sokka, was one thing, admitting it to the other… well, he wasn’t quite ready for that. 

“Thank God for text messages,” he said dryly instead. They had texted enough when Sokka was in the US and Zuko in Japan for shows. No doubt Sokka would keep that up. Hopefully. Maybe. 

“Oh, you will miss me!” Sokka’s voice was way too excited, and Zuko made the mistake, a very grave mistake, to turn around and look at his friend. His heart almost made a little leap seeing Sokka’s beaming smile like this.  _ This is so fucking unfair.  _ He could feel his own lips twitching upward too, but tried his best to keep it contained. 

“Anyway, I’m going to let you pack,” Sokka went on. “Hug?”

And before he even realized it himself, Zuko turned on his heel to throw his arms around Sokka’s body. 

~~

Zuko had spent most of the flight in more stress than he had ever been in for all his competitions combined. And it was  _ bad.  _ Very bad. Hell, he had even thrown up three times, and he had never gotten sick on an aeroplane before.  _ Ever.  _ And that of course is because  _ it’s not because of the aeroplane.  _ Just the uncertainty of what his father would say was too much. He highly doubted he’d go to bed without any newly acquired bruises tonight, but to what extent would it go? With his father, there was truly no way of knowing. 

He hadn’t even sent his father or sister a text message saying when he would be arriving back in Moscow. He couldn’t force his fingers to hit the little ‘send’ button each time he had tried. But something told him they’d know regardless. If they’d care enough to come to get him, that’s another story though. 

Which is why he was extremely surprised to see his father’s private chauffeur waiting for him once he was off the plane and had retrieved all of his bags. 

“Sir,” the driver said formally, his face showing no emotion. “Welcome back home.”

Zuko simply nodded and mumbles a quick ‘thank you’ as the driver helped him with one of his bags, too paralyzed out of fear to do anything else. Well, his father had at least sent someone to come get him. That was a good sign, right? That was a sign he at least somewhat cared, right? 

The drive home perhaps gave him a little snippet of what hell looked like. The driver didn’t speak, but with each meter they got closer to his home, his chest felt tighter and tighter. And by the time they drove through the large gates, Zuko felt as if he couldn’t breathe at all. And it was horrible. 

It was no surprise that he didn’t see anyone in the hallway upon entering the house, but he had no illusions that he could just go unnoticed as he sneaked up to his room. 

Of course, he ran into Azula first. This was no surprise either. 

“Dad is going to kill you,” Azula said first thing when he saw her. 

“Hello to you too,” he tried sounding snide, but his voice was most definitely failing him. “Long time no see.”

“No, I’m serious,” her expression was unreadable, which was not that unusual for her, but it didn’t make Zuko feel any less anxious. And if he had been living any other life, maybe she was right. He could kill him. But in his current life, he probably would not.  _ I’m too much in the public eye for him to kill me. It wouldn’t go unnoticed. Maybe, if I didn’t have so many fans, he very well could though.  _ “What the fuck were you thinking, Zuko? No, wait, I’ll answer that for you. You simply _ weren’t _ thinking. You can’t possibly think there wouldn’t be any consequences?” 

“It’s not like the two of you called me!” He whisper-shouted because shouting would most definitely make it even worse. The walls of their house weren’t that thin, but you never know where Ozai might be. Or what he might hear. 

“I’m not talking about the calling,” she raised her eyebrow as she crosses her arms. “You’re fucking the Canadian boy, aren’t you?” 

“I’m  _ what?”  _ Surely that’s not what they think he’s doing, right? Not that he’d necessarily be opposed to that, but surely that’s not what they got from a couple of Instagram stories and pictures together, right? Sokka takes pictures with everyone! And yes, he had seen the replies to the comments, and the tweets, and even the few articles. But still. There was no evidence to support this claim. Because, even if Zuko wanted there to be something, there was nothing going on between Sokka and him. And for the time being, Zuko didn’t even know if he  _ wanted  _ there to be something because he truly could not deal with all of this right now. This was a big enough of a mess as is. 

“You heard me,” she said. 

“I’m not  _ fucking _ Sokka,” he hissed back in anger. 

Her face softened but only a tiny bit. “It doesn’t matter. You befriended him.”

“Really? You want to make me feel bad about having one friend? Give me a break, I was doing shows for months. What did you two want me to do? Talk to no one at all?”

“Mai was there. Ty Lee was there for the most part too. She only left one week before you did.”

“Fuck,” he said, because what else could he say? There was nothing that he could do or say that would make her change her mind because he  _ knew _ how his father felt about him befriending people but he’d gone and done it anyway. 

_ And I would do it all again if I could restart from the beginning of the season.  _

“Dad wants to see you.  _ Now,” _ was the final thing she said before she turned on her heel and left. 

Zuko felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. 

~~

His hands trembled as he knocked on the large wooden door to his father’s office.  _ This is it.  _

“Come in,” his father said in a neutral voice and then, when Zuko entered, he said in the most biting tone without looking up from his computer, “Zuko. And to what do I owe the pleasure of you gracing me with your presence?”

“I have returned from the shows,” he said quietly. 

“I can see that, you brat,” Ozai’s voice was hard and loud, but that’s not something unusual for the man. “Tell me. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Uhm,” there was no correct answer to this. Only wrong ones. It was a trap. Zuko knew that too. 

“Speak!”

But not answering when his father specifically asked him to would be even worse of a decision. 

“Making friends,” he admitted. 

“ _ Making friends,”  _ his father scoffed. “ _ Making friends _ , he says. Is this all a joke to you?” 

Before Zuko could even fully register it, Ozai was up and crossing the room. The next moment, a hand flew across his face and immediately his cheek started to burn and sting, but he couldn’t show any emotion. No matter how much it hurt. He wouldn’t allow himself to. From past experiences, he knew it’d only make the man angrier if he made a scene. 

“Listen up here, you brat,” Ozai took both of his shoulders as he pulled him closer, making sure Zuko would stop looking at the floor, making everything even harder than it was, “you think you can afford to do shit like that? Spending your time on  _ friends  _ when you should be practising? Who the fuck do you think you are? Should I show you the video of how much you fucked up at worlds? That’s what you get from befriending the competition!” Ozai yelled in his face, and Zuko tried hard, God knows he tried, to keep looking at him as he did, but failed anyway and ended up looking back at the floor. 

_ Azula flopped too _ , he thought but didn’t say it out loud. It wouldn’t help either way. 

“Get out,” a jolt of pain went through Zuko’s leg, and it didn’t take much for him to realize that Ozai had kicked him. Hard. If it weren’t for the fact that his father was still holding him up by the shoulders in order to yell in his face, he would’ve probably collapsed on the floor right then and there. 

“What?”

“You heard me, get out of my house!” 

“But, where will I—“

“I genuinely do not  _ fucking care.  _ You can be glad, very glad, because I will keep paying for your skating. But mark my words, you drop from that number one spot on the world standings and you will regret the day you were born. If you don’t do all it takes, if you fail this one simple thing I’m asking of you...,” Ozai shoved him to the floor as he removed the grip from his shoulders and turned around, and Zuko scrambled back up before he could even think about it. “Out,” he repeated. 

Zuko grabbed all the bags he had arrived with, which was a struggle with his face still burning up and shooting pains in his leg, especially with how many bags he had had. At least most of his things were already packed. 

_ I just got thrown out.  _

He really just got thrown out of his own house. 

At the same time, all he could think was  _ ‘it could’ve been worse’.  _ Ozai could’ve done much, much worse than hit him and kick him once. And he had perhaps also expected much worse. Which was perhaps the most fucked up part about all of this. 

What was he going to do now? The fact that his father would still pay for his skating was something, he guessed, but he still  _ got thrown out.  _ And he couldn’t afford to mess up any competition next season. It would probably quite literally be his death. 

Before he realized, Zuko was emptying his stomach in the bushes at the side of the road. He felt so sick. Frankly, he wanted to do nothing more than to crawl up in a ball and lie on the floor for a good few hours. But he couldn’t. He had nowhere to go. 

So, he did the only thing he could think of to do. Call his uncle, and hoped he was in Moscow. 

~~

His uncle didn’t say much when he picked him up at the end of the street about an hour later, because he must have realized there’s nothing he could say that would make this situation any better. He did promise Zuko he could stay with him for as long as needed, and he looked quite relieved as Zuko told him his father would pay for his skating. 

Of course, Zuko was getting paid by the federation too, and the shows he had done paid him well too, but figure skating is still an extremely expensive sport. Only one of his costumes alone costed more than an average person’s month worth of rent. Or two months. The fact that he didn’t have to rely on his father monetary support for everything was somewhat of a relieve, but Zuko still wished he didn’t have to rely on his father at all. That would make this whole situation a lot easier. 

Except for the fact that he was hurt. Very hurt. He got  _ thrown out.  _ He had failed at the World Championships, and then he had fooled around for months during the shows, and now he had to pay the price. And he shouldn’t want to go home, he really shouldn’t, but he still did. He still wished he could return home sooner or later. That his father would call, to say he was wrong. But of course, that’s not something Ozai would ever do in his lifetime. 

One part of him wanted to text Sokka. To talk about what just happened or something like that. Maybe it would help, talking to someone. But he can’t, because talking to Sokka is what got him in this whole mess anyway. Well, maybe if he hadn’t done so badly at Worlds, it wouldn’t have been that bad. It definitely wouldn’t have been that nad. But still. Sokka was a factor too. It wasn’t Sokka’s fault, but it definitely was Zuko’s. He can’t talk to Sokka now. So he won't. He ignored each incoming text. 

~~

Life goes on, no matter how much Zuko wished it didn’t. No matter how much he wished he could just stay in bed for weeks, sleep, pretend things never happened. 

But his alarm clock went off at 6 am that very next day for practice, and he practically dragged himself through his morning routine, and then to the ice rink. If anything, he just felt extremely empty. Not necessarily sad, not anymore. Not angry or hurt either. Just empty. If he was being honest, he’d rather feel angry than empty. At least that anger could be somewhat used towards his jumps. 

His uncle lived further away from the rink than he was used to, but at least he could use the car. Maybe getting his driver’s licence last year wasn’t the worst idea after all. Though he must admit, driving is far from his favourite activity. 

At least there’s figure skating. There’s always figure skating. 

He wondered how much his coach knew of what happened. He also wondered if his coach would say something. Knowing his coach, he wouldn’t though. His coach rarely engaged in conversations that had anyone’s private life as subject and Zuko was glad for that at least. 

It only hit him now, but he had also missed his coach in the past few months. Training alone was hard, and his coach, whilst overly strict, also was never angry at him outside of his lessons. Which Zuko appreciated. 

Dreading seeing his sister at the rink, Zuko waited a few more minutes in the car. The closer it got to the time his practice started, the less chance of having a long conversation with her in the dressing room. Even if he doubted she’d do that, considering other skaters share the dressing room. Surely she wouldn’t humiliate him like that in the middle of a dressing room. 

When he finally entered the dressing room a bit later, after trying to calm himself down for what seemed like forever, he realized the universe really fucking hates him because all the junior skaters were already gone on the ice and his sister was sitting alone in the middle of the room because  _ of fucking course _ she was. 

“Well, well, well, look who we have here,” she said, but her face didn’t look too amused. In fact, her face looked strangely neutral. 

“Good morning to you too,” he said dryly as he placed his bag down and took out his left skate. Off-ice warm-up will be for another day. His coach was going to be pissed about him skipping it no doubt, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He’d live.

“You got thrown out,” Azula said matter-of-factly. 

Zuko shook his head and pulled harder on his laces because spraining his ankle is the last thing he’d need right now. Especially now his leg still hurt from yesterday. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“I don’t understand you, Zuko,” she said more quietly this time. “I really don’t. Is that boy really more important than skating?”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Did she really think his whole world revolved around Sokka? “First of all, this has nothing to do with Sokka — yes, Sokka, the  _ boy _ has a name. Secondly,” he looked her in the eyes as he went on, angrily, “nothing is more important than skating.”

“You sound convincing enough, and yet, you do nothing to show it.”

“What did I do to show I don’t care about skating?” 

“You flopped Worlds,” because of course she would bring that up. Zuko messed up one competition and it’s there to throw in his face forever

“So did you.”  _ And even worse than I did.  _ But of course, Azula is the wonderchild of the family. The figure skating protege. It was one competition, and no doubt she’d go back to being consistently perfect in every single competition the following years. 

“Zuko,” she finally said, her voice sounding more soft than normal, “you better win every single competition you’re doing next season.”

He stood up, rushing to the ice. Once again, all he could do was skate. Skate to calm down. Skate to forget. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

He hadn’t heard from Zuko in about a month. And it’s not because he hadn’t tried, because he had. At one point, Sokka even started to get scared something bad might have happened to his friend. The only thing keeping him somewhat sane regarding that was the fact that sometimes Zuko could be seen in the background on one of the Instagram stories Zuko’s coach would post, to show off one of their junior students landing a quad, and such things. Zuko was never the main point of the Instagram story (knowing Zuko, he probably didn’t want to be), but he did appear in the background almost always. So, he wasn’t dead. That’s something. 

Zuko wasn’t liking any of his Instagram posts or Tweets since they returned either, something he had done before. But to be fair, nothing on his own profiles indicated he’d been online these days in the first place. 

And other than that, Sokka had no idea what had happened. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t extremely annoyed at that. 

After two weeks of his text messages going ignored, he gave up. Maybe he had overstepped boundaries during that last show. Maybe he had accidentally said something to hurt Zuko. Or maybe his crush, because it’s just that, a  _ crush _ , nothing more, had been too obvious to the other and he had scared him away. Maybe Katara was wrong. Maybe Zuko wasn’t oblivious. 

But Sokka couldn’t shake away the bitterness he was feeling towards him.  _ The asshole.  _ And to think that Sokka really thought they were getting somewhere. That Zuko, at the very least platonically, liked him. He clearly had been wrong, and that hurt him more than he’d like to admit. 

“ _ I knew we couldn’t trust him,” _ Katara had said. Sokka hadn’t even meant to tell her, really, but apparently, his sour mood was becoming obvious to his friends and family, so what else could he do? 

Sokka wanted to defend him, he wished he could, ‘ _ maybe he’s just busy _ ’, ‘ _ maybe his coach took away his phone so he could concentrate on skating _ ’,  _ ‘maybe he dropped his phone and it broke and he hasn’t gotten a new one’, ‘maybe he went skating on a lake and then his phone fell and it made a hole in the ice and now his phone is on the bottom of some lake somewhere’. _ Those were all possible, sure, (except perhaps the lake one. It was already spring and nearing summer, after all) but Sokka had to admit to himself that it was pretty damn unlikely. 

After four weeks, he had given up completely. He hadn’t sent any additional text in the past weeks, because he wasn’t about to throw away his pride completely. And it was  _ fine.  _ Everything was  _ fine.  _ Life goes on. He went to his classes, did his coursework, went skating, studied, just as always. Sokka was  _ fine.  _ It be like that sometimes. Was he salty? Yes. But he was managing. 

He was somewhat regaining peace with the fact that that was just how Zuko apparently was. 

But then, of course, leave it to Zuko to shake it all up again. 

Sokka truly didn’t understand Zuko. He thought he did by now, at least a little bit. But every time he thought he had figured it out, something like this would happen. 

So there he was, staring at his phone for way too long to be healthy, probably. He kind of regretted turning off the previews of new messages. All Sokka knew that is was from Zuko, and it was sent 10 minutes ago. He could just delete it without reading. Maybe that’s what Zuko deserved. Maybe that’s what he should do. 

In the end, Sokka couldn’t bring himself to delete it. And after a few more moments of debating on whether he really should open it or not, he finally did. His heart sinks in an instance as he read the message. 

**Zuko:** Sorry. I got kicked out. 

_Kicked out? As in, out of his house?_ _What the hell?_

Sokka blinked a couple more times at the message, and reread it a couple of more times too. 

**Sokka:** what happened?

**Zuko:** Doesn’t matter. I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your messages. 

All Sokka wanted to do was reply ‘ _ it does matter, what happened?’ _ , but he knew he couldn’t. Yes, they were friends, perhaps, maybe, at least he thought they were at one point. And if that was the reason Zuko didn’t reply to him for a month, then they probably still were. But he  _ couldn’t.  _ Because it’s not fair towards Zuko, to push him to say things he didn’t want to. 

**Sokka: ** are you okay?

**Zuko: ** I’m fine. 

**Sokka: ** text me if you feel like you need it?

**Zuko: ** I will. 

Sokka should be upset about the ghosting for a month. And in a way, he still very much was. He will maybe bring it up to Zuko later, much later, but for now, he was just very confused over what had just happened. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

“Reason for that frown on your face, nephew?” His uncle asked him as he was sitting at the table staring at his phone. 

“I texted Sokka,” admitted Zuko. 

“Oh? Did he say something bad?” His uncle slid down on the chair next to him. Zuko had been living there for a good month now, and he still shouldn’t shake the feeling that he really wanted to go back home. But at the same time, his uncle helped him. And his uncle listened. His uncle  _ cared.  _ So at the same time, he didn’t want to go home at all. It was all very confusing. Perhaps, if Zuko was younger, he’d have hoped his father would turn around and start caring about him too. But he was 20 and Zuko no longer has such illusions. His father never regretted anything. It just made him wonder even more why at least a tiny part of him still wanted to return home in the first place. 

“No,”  _ but I almost wish he did. I almost wish he was angry. It’d be easier. _ And Zuko would understand why he’d be angry too. “But I kind of ignored him since I returned home.” 

It had been hard, really hard even. Especially when Sokka had been trying to start a conversation between them. Because Zuko actually genuinely liked him, crush aside, and he actually genuinely wanted to talk to him too. But in this past month, he just hoped, maybe it would fix things not to. Of course, it hadn’t. 

His uncle looks at him. “Why? He’s your friend, isn’t he?” 

“Yes but, I thought that if I just ignored it, it’d go away.”

“What could go away?” 

“I think I like him,” Zuko didn’t think before speaking and it was out before he realized, but as soon as he did his eyes flew open in horror.  _ Fuck.  _ He quickly prayed to every single god he could think of that his uncle wouldn’t get the implication of the word ‘like’. He felt sick in his stomach. When will he learn how to think?

_ Does he realize? Did I just come out? I can’t afford to get thrown out here too. Fuck fuck fuck fuck— _

Much to Zuko’s dismay, his uncle smiled instead. “It’s alright,” he said, and Zuko had no clue what the fuck that’s supposed to mean. “Nephew, you can like whoever you like,” he followed up, and Zuko couldn’t be sure they were talking about the same type of  _ liking _ , but something in his uncle’s voice told him they were. It was almost enough to calm him back down. Almost. 

“I’m not—“  _ I’m not what? Not in love with Sokka? Not gay?  _

Before he could decide what to say though, his uncle cut him off again. “I don’t care,” he stood back up and lightly tapped Zuko on the shoulder, probably in an attempt to comfort him, “you were always welcome here. No matter what. And you’re still welcome now.”

And with that, his uncle left the room. All the cropped up stress from the past months suddenly became unbearable though, and Zuko only just made it to the bathroom in time to empty his stomach. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Tw// (physical) abuse (Ozai to Zuko) and vomitting.  
  
**  
~~
> 
> I try not to do this _but_, last weekend at Four Continents Yuzuru Hanyu performed [the most beautiful and well-executed short program I’ve ever seen](https://youtu.be/jn_U8hjbFoM) in over 13 years of being _heavily_ invested in this sport so I simply had to share it. (Alternative Mega.nz link to a quality fancam without camera cuts and commentators [here](https://mega.nz/#!jdk1AaSZ!tNhMkvoVtxyjjhUZTGQlrpMQBfvOEtSNuF_zf7tmWU8)). I genuinely cannot get over it. This is it. I genuinely might never shut up about this. Truly the GOAT of figure skating.


	16. Off-season part 6

_ ZUKO _

There are times, where you get such an unexpected email, you have to just blink and reread said email three times to even comprehend what it’s saying. Not because it’s worded difficulty or something like that. Just because it’s  _ really  _ unexpected. 

Zuko was having one of those times. 

From the Russian Federation, he got an email, basically telling him they were sending him out to get his new programs choreographed in Canada. Of course it was needed, very much needed, it was already nearing the end of July and Zuko  _ still _ had no programs because he wasn’t sure yet who would choreograph them in the first place. He had been looking around, deciding who he’d ask because this season his programs especially would be really important. He really needed that program component score, now everyone’s jumps became better and better, and he was losing that advantage. 

So really, it’s not  _ that  _ strange the federation took matters in their own hand, he supposed. 

Still, he hadn’t expected his indecisiveness would lead to him being flown out to Canada. Also, he had only chosen his music last week. Another reason his choreography this season was being done so late. But he was having real difficulties finding good music, and without good music, he would never get a good program either. He wasn’t exactly the most musically inclined so it was really needed to find a piece he felt comfortable with, something he  _ understood.  _ But it’s hard finding those pieces. Everything needed to be perfect. 

It made sense, really. One of the best choreographers in the field is in Canada. And Zuko is Russia’s best male skater. Why his sister was sent to some other choreographer nearby is what he truly didn’t understand at all though. The one she was sent to was a good choreographer too, but still. 

And why was his sister late with her choreography anyway? That’s very unlike her too. But he only found out about that because the email was addressed to both of them, saying they had decided for them. 

Perhaps they knew he really needed the best choreographer out there more than his sister. Scratch that, they definitely knew he needed it more than his sister. Her component score was always higher if you don’t take the lower factor for women into account that is. 

No one ever really brought up her results at the World Championships either, not as much as they did with Zuko, which was very frustrating of course but what could he do? At the end of the day, it seemed like the federation trusted his sister more than they trusted him. But that’s a whole other problem. Not something he wanted to think about right now. 

His flight is in two days already, and somehow the federation hadn’t booked a hotel for him yet. They had provided him with money, sure, but they hadn’t actually booked it. Seriously, how did this all happen?

Oh, and here’s the real catch. Of course, that choreographer was based at the rink Sokka trained at.  _ Of course _ she is. 

He genuinely could not make this shit up if he tried. 

Zuko debated whether he should tell Sokka, whether he should text him. They had been talking more again in the past week, with Sokka never mentioning the whole ‘thrown out’-part, which Zuko was very grateful for. It was something he really didn’t want to discuss, leave alone over text. 

In the end, Zuko decided it would probably be very weird and slightly creepy to just show up one day at Sokka’s home rink without any warning, so he really had to tell him. Though, maybe Sokka was one of those people that liked surprises? Who knows. But Zuko isn’t, so he really should tell him anyway. Just in case. 

**Zuko: ** I guess I’m coming to Canada in about two days. 

**Sokka: ** ???

**Zuko: ** I need my new programs choreographed. 

**Sokka: ** makes sense

**Sokka:** wait, you’re coming  _ here?  _ as in, my rink here?

**Zuko: ** Seems like it. Sorry. 

**Sokka: ** why are you apologizing for that??

If he was being honest, Zuko wasn’t sure why he was. He just felt like it might be awkward. Maybe he was just making it awkward himself. Before he could reply though, Sokka sent another message. 

**Sokka:** do you have a hotel booked yet?

Zuko really hoped this wasn’t going where he thought that it was going, but knowing Sokka it probably was. 

**Zuko:** No. 

**Sokka: ** you can stay here if you want

_ No. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope.  _ That could absolutely not end up going well. In no way, shape, or form, was that a good idea. 

**Zuko: ** I don’t want to impose. 

**Sokka: ** i wouldnt have asked if it wasnt okay

**Sokka: ** no pressure but like if you want to youre welcome here

Every single cell in Zuko’s body was telling him to decline, to open his laptop and book a hotel. He should. He  _ really really  _ should. There was absolutely no way staying over at Sokka’s  _ house _ for a week would end up going well. In any way. 

But saying no, especially to Sokka, mainly to Sokka, isn’t his forte. He had discovered that weakness a while ago. And he’s made so many bad decisions these past few months, what’s one more, right? He was also kind of intrigued to see Sokka’s house and all that. 

His finger hit the ‘send’ button before he could even really think about it. 

**Zuko: ** Only if you’re sure it’s no problem for your grandmother and Katara. 

It’s times like these Zuko really wished he had a better impulse control. That could save him from a lot of his problems. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

Maybe he should’ve ask his GranGran if he could have a friend over for about a week  _ before _ promising said friend he absolutely could. But Sokka didn’t think it would actually be a problem. Hopefully. 

“Can a friend come sleepover in a few days?” He asked during dinner that night in the nicest tone he could manage. “For like, about a week?” 

“Why would one of your friends want to stay for a week?” Katara asked before GranGran could give permission. Great. 

“Uh, you know, reasons?” He tried. 

It was his GranGran who spoke up next. “Who is this friend?” 

“He’s from quite far and he’s staying a week so—“

“Sokka.”

“Fine, it’s Zuko. From skating. He’s coming to our rink to work with our choreographers,” he said, and Katara crossed her arms almost straight away, cocking her eyebrow. 

“Really? I thought he ignored you for like a good month?” She said, clearly not amused. “But now he’s suddenly your friend again, now he needs you?” 

In hindsight, he probably should’ve told her when Zuko and he had started speaking a bit over a week ago. The only reason he hadn’t was because he wasn’t quite sure how to explain the reason as to why Zuko apparently hadn’t replied to Sokka’s texts. He doubted the other wanted Katara to know about his situation, so Sokka guessed it would be the safest call just to say nothing at all. 

“No, honestly! It’s really not like that!” Sokka tried, “I promise. It’s not. It’s complicated? But it was my idea. Really.”

Katara’s face softened again, and he glanced back to his GranGran now, who was clearly still making up her mind. 

Eventually, she just sighed and ended up saying. “As long as you still keep up with college and skating, the boy can stay here.”

“I don’t have any classes, it’s July,” Sokka said even though GranGran knew that, to begin with. Besides, Zuko would only stay for a bit, not for forever, “oh also, we studied together all the time in Japan.”

It had worked too. His grades had been better than expected, especially with how little he had attended class because of skating this year. 

“ _ Studied together _ ,” Katara murmured under her breath. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

Zuko was packing for his flight that evening as he got a text from Mai. 

It felt like everything he ever did in the past few months was packing. Packing to go to a competition. Packing to go from hotel to hotel, show to show. Packing to go get his programs choreographed. 

It was just as annoying now as it was the first time. 

**Mai: ** I’m returning to Moscow tomorrow. Can you pick me up at the airport?

He  _ knew _ he had forgotten about something. He hit his forehead with his palm in frustration. How could he forget?

**Zuko: ** Oh. Sorry, I’m leaving tonight for about a week or so. Maybe Azula or coach can get you?

**Zuko: ** I’m really sorry I forgot. 

At least he had told her about his… home situation, so to say. That was something. But only because he knew she never asked for too many details. Probably because she knew Zuko wouldn’t want to talk about it. At least she would ask Azula herself now. 

**Mai:** Where are you going to?

**Zuko: ** Canada

**Mai: ** No

**Zuko: ** It was the federation’s idea. 

**Mai: ** Where are you staying?

**Zuko: ** Take a guess. 

**Mai: ** No

**Mai: ** Zuko

**Mai: ** You didn’t

**Zuko:** It was his idea! What was I supposed to do? Say no?

Of course he should’ve said no. Of course Zuko had thought about cancelling countless of times in the past few days or so. Staying with Sokka was, well, dangerous. In many different ways. But mostly because Sokka was just so  _ confusing.  _ Well, the boy himself wasn’t really confusing, but Zuko’s feelings near Sokka definitely were. Texting and liking Instagram posts was one thing, actually seeing each other…

Not to mention, his father was probably going to kill him if he ever found out. And of course he would find out. It probably wouldn’t take much to figure it out at all. Zuko wasn’t really planning on going to great extends to keep it a secret either. News like this got out anyway. People would ask him who choreographed his programs anyway. Even if it meant his chances of ever returning home would completely vanish once his father knew.

But he also had been thinking about a backup plan. Regarding his father, that is. 

**Mai:** Fair enough 

**Mai:** Good luck with that

**Zuko: ** Thanks, I’ll need it. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

Sokka wasn’t  _ nervous _ when he went to pick up Zuko from the airport. Of course he wasn’t. He’s just here. Picking up a friend. As friends do. 

However, that whole ‘not nervous’-thing was thrown out of the window real quick when he actually  _ saw  _ Zuko at the airport. He looked tired, and his hair was a mess, his hoodie too big and he was wearing  _ glasses.  _ It was a lot more endearing than it should’ve been. 

Sokka had never seen him like this before, even when he had barged in the other’s hotel room plenty of times when he was already asleep during the shows. (Not on purpose of course, but Zuko apparently goes to bed rather early. Earlier than Sokka at least.)

Or maybe he just never noticed. Thinking back now, he actually kind of had. 

His mouth felt kind of dry. 

“I didn’t know you wear glasses?” Was the first thing he said to Zuko when he approached him and mentally facepalmed right after. Really? He could’ve at least said hello first. 

Zuko’s mouth grew into a tiny smile that would’ve almost gone unnoticed if it weren’t for the fact that Zuko’s face is rarely seen with a smile. Though, it did seem like it was happening more and more during the shows this summer. 

“Hello to you too,” Zuko replied, “but yeah, I almost always wear lenses. Well, one lens. It’s a lot more practical for skating. I also forgot to take my glasses with me to Japan, but my sight isn’t  _ that  _ bad so it was okay, honestly.”

“Why—,” Sokka shut his mouth before he could say something stupid like ‘ _ but they look so good on you’ _ . “Uhm, the car is this way.”

It’s wild, Sokka thought, how he can be oblivious for the longest time, but once he notices he’s falling for someone, he falls hard and fast. He’s had his fair share of crushes in high school. He knew how he could get with them. It was a problem. 

_ This was a terrible idea on my part.  _

~~

Katara and GranGran waiting for them in the kitchen was something he could’ve expected, really. At least he had warned Zuko that his grandmother, while she really meant well, could sometimes come on a bit strong. 

“So, you are Zuko,” she acknowledged, and Zuko actually looked kind of nervous. 

“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” Zuko replied, clearly doing his best to be as polite as possible. “Thank you I could stay at your house for the week.”

She motioned her hand, in a way as to say ‘don’t worry about it’ before it all went downhill real fast. “That’s quite the scar you got there, Zuko.”

“GranGran--,” both Sokka and Katara said at the same time. It’s not even like she never had seen the guy before, she watched any skating competition either of her grandchildren was in, she definitely had seen it before on tv, and Zuko was visibly taken aback.

“I guess it is,” he agreed quietly.

“Well, show the boy your room and the rest of the house, Sokka.”

For some reason, Zuko looked even more nervous now, but at the same time, he looked somewhat relieved.

~~

_ ZUKO _

He should’ve seen it coming. Of course this was going to happen.  _ Of course  _ not everyone lives in a big house with multiple spare rooms, most people don’t. 

Of course he was going to have to stay in _ Sokka’s room _ . For multiple days. Together with Sokka. 

At least they had put another mattress on the floor for him. That’s something. Zuko was pretty sure he couldn’t handle - platonically - sharing a bed with Sokka right now.

“You have a nice room,” he hoped his voice didn’t betray him as he put his luggage down. It wasn’t really a lie, Sokka’s room was nice enough. But there was a lot of clutter, his desk was full of what looked like unorganized papers, and one of the chairs in the room was full of clothes. Zuko wasn’t really used to clutter, from a very young age he had been used to keeping everything pretty neat (except for his hotel room near the end of a trip. That could get bad too). But somehow, it added character, in a weird sort of way. This was very clearly Sokka’s room. 

For some reason, he had no posters of anyone or anything, but some kind of boomerang was displayed on one of the walls. That’s definitely an odd choice. 

“You really like it?” Sokka asked. 

“It suits you.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” his voice sounded neutral, but his face showed he was amused nonetheless, as he threw a glance at the unorganised desk and the chair full of clothes nearby.

Zuko just shrugged. 

“Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the house,” Sokka said.

~~

**Zuko:** Help. 

**Zuko: ** Apparently we’re sleeping in the same room for a week. A WEEK. 

**Mai: ** and they were roommates

**Mai: ** oh my god they were roommates

**Zuko: ** _ stop _

**Zuko:** This hardly counts as being roommates. 

~~ 

It hadn’t even been that late when they went to bed last night, and he was definitely tired from the long flight, and still, Zuko could not sleep all night. If he was being honest, he felt kind of nervous about the choreography. Okay, he felt really nervous about it. 

What if he didn’t get it? What if a week was not enough to learn two new programs? What if he got a beautiful program, packed with transitions, and then two months later only one-third of the transitions were left in the program. That always happened. He  _ needed _ those transitions though. He  _ needed  _ to show the world he improved a lot when it came to steps. 

When the alarm finally rang that morning, he felt like he had slept for maybe three hours at most, with those three hours being filled with very light sleep. 

“I hate early morning practices,” Sokka murmured from the other side of the room where he stretched out to get to the light switch, and the other side of the room really wasn’t that far away at all and that wasn’t helping Zuko one bit.

“It’s 7:30,” Zuko said, looking anywhere but Sokka lying all stretched out on his bed. His shirt was riding up and showing his skin and wow could this morning get any worse?  _ Please get a longer shirt. At least he’s wearing a shirt though.  _ Zuko also did his best to then not think about completely shirtless Sokka. Or completely shirtless Sokka on the ice, like what he had done for his gala exhibition programs this season. How had Zuko not noticed how attractive that was? Perhaps he had. 

Anyways, that’s not the point. 

“your point?” 

Zuko sighed, “this is not exactly  _ early morning _ . It’d argue it’s just morning.”

“Not for me it isn’t,” only now Zuko noticed that Sokka looked tired. Very tired. Even more tired than he himself felt. He didn’t mention it. 

They got ready rather quickly, which Zuko definitely wasn’t used to. In fact, usually, he woke up at least an hour in advance before left, but by 8 am, Katara, Sokka and he were on their way to the rink, with Sokka driving the car.

Katara kept throwing him these glances in the rearview mirror, which he guessed he deserved. She didn’t seem too pleased with him ghosting her brother for a good month. _ Fair enough. _

The rink wasn’t that far away at least, because as much as he trusted Sokka in more ways than he’d like to admit, he looked way too tired to be driving for a long while right now. 

“Zuko!” Aang exclaimed as soon as he entered the dressing room. Zuko had never been at this ice rink before, but hey, it’s an ice rink. And he was used to getting used to new ice rinks anyway. Why was Aang this cheery this early in the morning? And because of  _ Zuko _ ?

“Hey,” he ignored the looks that some of the other novice and junior skaters in the dressing room were giving him as he entered behind Sokka and Katara. A lot of promising young skaters practised there as well. After all, this rink had one of the better coaching teams. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“You know, getting new choreography,” he explained as he claimed an empty spot on the bench. 

Apparently, Sokka wasn’t a fan of stretching before he went on the ice, but Katara was doing a few light stretches so Zuko guessed it would be okay if he did too. He stood up and stretched his knees, before leaning down, desperately trying to touch his toes.

“Oh, so you’re staying for a bit?” Aang still sounded excited, which was weird enough. 

Zuko, not exactly in a position to reply coherently considering how hard he was trying to stretch and touch his toes, simply hummed in response.  _ How is Sokka more flexible than me? The guy can do a biellmann and everything without stretching?  _ Or well, Sokka could at one point in time at least. He definitely had a biellmann spin in one of his gala programs a few years ago. He hadn’t performed in a while though, so maybe not. 

“So, you’re staying for a while!” Zuko came back up and Aang’s eyes lit up and that could not mean anything good, “could you teach me that fire trick? Please? Pretty please?” 

“Absolutely not,” both Katara and him answered at the same time. 

_ ~~  _

There were a few pre-season traditions Zuko had. Almost none of them he will be able to follow this year. He was not exactly a superstitious person, but it still made him feel a bit weird. 

First of all, he only started checking the grand prix assignments around september. It would just make him nervous otherwise, as they were the only thing he can think about once he knew them. It was a problem, really. 

But normally, he practised at home most of the summer. And he didn’t talk to many people. Of course, Mai, Ty Lee and Azula used to talk about them, but they knew he didn’t like to, and they only talked about the women’s assignments. Most of the time at least. 

Now, Sokka had accidentally let it slip they were doing Skate America together. It’s not like Zuko could blame him, Sokka didn’t know after all. But he’d rather not known he was doing Skate America, of all competitions. He’d have much rather done NHK, or even Internationaux de France or Cup of China. Those last two were known by many fans to be absolute disaster grand prix, but for some reason, he was just really nervous about the idea of Skate America. He had no clue why, he had been nervous about that competition at first too last year. But he ended up doing well last year, so his stress was probably for nothing. 

He was, of course, also doing Rostelecom cup, together with Aang and Jet (and Katara), apparently. Sokka’s other grand prix was Skate Canada. 

His second pre-season ‘tradition’ was to not look up anything related to his competitors until around September. Especially not pieces of their programs or choreography. It was a  _ bad idea.  _ Once again, something that just added extra pressure he’d rather live without for as long as he could. 

The problem now, of course, is that he’s literally on the ice with both Sokka and Aang during most of the practices. Both of which are his direct competition. And well, it wasn’t helping. 

Zuko tried not to think of it, but it was rather hard. Aang’s new programs suited him well, and they were more grown-up than last season. His jumps and spins were improving too, and Zuko could definitely see him making it to the Grand Prix Final again, and doing better than last season. 

Sokka’s programs, on the other hand, weren’t  _ too  _ different from his programs last season, but that was probably because of a very good reason. Sokka’s programs from last season suited him well. He already had found ‘his’ style, what worked for him. But while similar, the choreography was still unique. And  _ beautiful.  _ And Zuko tried hard, very very hard, to not watch his skating too much. He had to focus on his own skating. 

And then, there was a whole other problem. One thing he wasn’t as prepared for as he had probably expected, or hoped, to be. Which was seeing Sokka’s post-practice face every. Single. Day. 

Every time Sokka came off the ice he was red and flustered, especially now Sokka seemed to be doing  _ a lot  _ of run-throughs of his new program. 

And the heat of the dressing rooms after walking away from the cold of the ice rink wasn’t helping. At all. At least he could blame his own blushing on the difference in temperature between the rink and the dressing room, and his own run-throughs. 

The only good thing was that the shows had apparently at least thought him something in regards to learning choreography. It wasn’t going nearly as bad as he had expected it to go, and he found himself picking up everything way faster than he usually did.

~~ 

At least the universe had some mercy on him because unlike what happened in most romcoms, Sokka never actually came back from his shower only half-dressed with water droplets still running down his abs, or something stupid like that. No, he actually managed to always return fully clothes and mostly dry. Not that Zuko was expecting that to really happen, they weren’t in a movie after all, but with how his life had been going lately, he wouldn’t be surprised. 

However, Zuko learned rather quickly that Sokka tended to take really long showers. And about four days into his stay, Katara took advantage of that. 

“I don’t understand you,” she barged into the room, and Zuko put aside the book he had been reading on his ‘bed’. 

“You and me both,” he replied because he had no clue what he was doing either. Not that he knew what she was talking about, but in general. 

“ _ But _ ,” she said narrowing her eyes, “my brother trusts and likes you enough apparently. So, I want to like and trust you too. But mark my words, if you ever hurt him, you’ll regret it,” her voice was stern as she left the room as quickly as she walked in. 

_ Well. That was… something.  _

It was almost endearing how much Katara looked out for her brother, Azula would never, but that didn’t change the fact that Zuko definitely felt somewhat scared of her. 

Still, he almost wished he could have that with his sister too. Except that Katara seemed to be a much better person than his sister. 

But then again, maybe Sokka was a much better person than he himself too. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

There are things you don’t notice about a person until you spent more time with them. And it’s not like Sokka hasn’t spent much time with Zuko, in fact, they had spent a lot of time together in the past year, and he had learned a lot of things about Zuko. But every person still has something new you find out about even if you’ve spent a lot of time together. 

For Zuko, it was that he couldn’t catch anything to save his life. 

Both the apple, the pen, the water bottle, and the pack of tissues Sokka had thrown at him over the course of the week had fallen on the ground, even if Zuko had been clearly trying to catch the items. 

“Man, you’re bad at catching things,” he laughed. It wasn’t supposed to sound rude and it probably wasn’t, because they were on that level of friendship where they could tease each other. 

That’s something Sokka definitely never expected. 

“Sokka, I literally do not have depth perception,” Zuko ended up saying though, before gesturing to his eye and  _ oh.  _

_ Right.  _

Perhaps, in hindsight, Sokka should’ve expected that. Of course he should’ve expected that. Fuck. 

“I’m so—“

“Don’t. I have perfect eyesight in my other eye. It’s  _ fine, _ ” said Zuko, picking up the pack of tissues he had asked for a few seconds ago and that were now lying at his feet. “Well, okay, perfect is a big word. I have perfect eyesight if I’m wearing my lenses or glasses. But again, it’s really not bad.”

But now he had a reason to look at Zuko’s eyes properly, all he could think about was how they truly had the most extraordinary eye colour. Of course he had realized this before, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had never seen someone with that eye colour before. 

_ Who the fuck has golden eyes?  _

“How do you not skate into people?” He managed to ask anyway, and Zuko just shrugged. 

“You get used to it. I have more problems when it’s busy on the ice though. Or when everyone is learning new programs.”

“Do you think you will ever tell me what happened with your eye? You don’t have to of course,” he shouldn’t be asking this, he didn’t want to pry, but curiosity killed the cat. 

“One day.”

It sounded like a promise. 

~~

Sokka, being Sokka, posted even more on Instagram during the off-season than he normally did. Perhaps he had a problem, but hey it was just fun to post about what he had been trying to practice now. An Instagram story of his quad flip attempts, pieces of his new program, anything really. Besides, skating fans were always more excited for new content during the off-season that always seemed to last way too long. 

At first, he had been careful to make sure Zuko wasn’t somewhere in the background. That is until Zuko said he didn’t  _ mind  _ being in the Instagram stories.   
  
“Are you sure?” he asked. Zuko hadn’t even made it public yet he was in Canada for his new programs. 

Zuko nodded anyway, and a small smile grew on his lips. “Tell me when you do though, don’t want to miss my fans’ reaction to this.”

It’s weird, seeing Zuko like this.  _ Talking about this.  _ Because they never talk about this. 

Zuko was right of course, Twitter nearly had a meltdown when they eventually found out Zuko was staying over at Sokka’s. It was kind of amusing. 

~~

“What do you think of my programs, by the way?” He couldn’t help but ask, about two days before Zuko would leave again. It had been a long day. Hell, it had been a long week. The number of hours he spent on the ice during the off-season was almost unhealthy. But he loved skating, so he didn’t mind. Besides, new programs really need a lot of training hours. And any time spent on new programs is not spent on new jumps. 

“They’re nice,” Zuko replied. He was lying on his own ‘bed’, well, mattress, clearly as about exhausted as Sokka himself, who was sat on his own bed, was. “They’re very  _ you _ .”

“I think yours are very  _ you  _ too. The music’s nice.”

“It better be,” Zuko chuckled, “with the number of hours I spent listening to pieces music trying to find the right one.”

He hadn’t watched Zuko’s full choreography yet, he’d rather wait until the first competition, when it was hopefully all polished up, but he had seen pieces of it. And the music. His components really had improved a whole lot. Still not as many transitions as some other skaters, Sokka included, but still an improvement from last year. The interpretation and composition definitely got better too. 

“It was worth it.”

The music one chooses to skate to can say a lot about that person. Not all skaters chose their music themselves, but the fact that Zuko had chosen his own pieces had immediately been very clear. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

“My father is calling,” he announced while Sokka and he were in Sokka’s room, Zuko once again packing his bag to leave again the next day. It had been so unexpected, Zuko couldn’t even think about it before saying it out loud.

“You want me to go so you can call in peace?” Sokka asked. They hadn’t talked about the situation really, and Zuko was grateful for that. And having Sokka in the room would definitely be awkward 

But that didn’t change the fact that he also very much didn’t want to answer the call in the first place. 

He had to, though. Of course he had to. He nodded silently at Sokka, who stood up and left, but not without giving him a reassuring smile before leaving.

“You’re in Canada,” Ozai’s voice sounded once he hit the button to take the call. 

_ It wasn’t my idea. The federation sent me _ , should’ve probably been his response. Instead of that however, he has said, “apparently.”

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting my programs choreographed. You want me to win right? Surely you know I need higher PC scores. Hence, I need a good choreographer.”

“You’re being smart with me,” Ozai said, his voice rising and Zuko knew, he  _ knew, _ he was making this worse. But he was far away, and safe. Hopefully. Zuko barely could bring himself to care now. He had been thinking about it the past week. Even if his father stopped paying for his skating, even if he could never come back home, if he got a part-time job at one of his uncle’s tearoom, he’d be able to pay for his skating himself. This knowledge gave him some kind of confidence boost he probably really didn’t need, but here we are anyway. “Why are you staying at that boy’s house?” 

“It saves money, doesn’t it?” Zuko was throwing wood on the fire now. Once again, he was surprised to find he didn’t really care. 

“You brat,” Ozai yelled in his ear, and Zuko held the phone a bit farther away because he already lost sight in one eye, he didn’t need to lose his hearing too. “I’ll tell you what will save me money. You’re on your own.” 

_ I already was.  _

Zuko stared at his phone after Ozai hung up, a strange sense of relieve flooding his senses. 

“Are you okay,” Sokka peaked his face through the door after a while. 

“I think I’m going to be.”

He was going to have to ask his uncle for that job. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot believe this is officially longer in wordcount than my multi-chaptered soulmate au, when I initially planned it to be around 35k words


	17. Lombardia trophy (2019)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for being late with this chapter, some things came up this week. I will try to post the next chapter within the next seven days too.

_ SOKKA _

The off-season, while fun, seemed to have lasted for forever. While competitions are no doubt more stressful than shows and off-season practices, Sokka couldn’t help but feel excited about his first competition rapidly approaching. 

One of the more exciting things was definitely the revival of the figure skating fandom and with that the reactions to everyone’s new costumes and programs. Not that the fandom was completely dead during the off-season, there were tons of shows after all and people announcing coaching changes and their new program’s music, but it was still quieter than during the competition season. Sokka skated for himself mainly, but he still hoped his fans (and the judges) enjoyed his new programs as much as he did. He really wanted to show them his improvements over the summer. 

So, to say he was excited when he boarded that plane to Italy would be an understatement. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

During his last practice before leaving to Italy, Zuko felt tenser than he normally did before competitions. Anyone on the ice right now would’ve probably noticed it too. He had fallen on the stupidest things during his program (with a  _ twizzle. A twizzle! _ ) and he kept missing a level on his combo spin. Of course, the fact that his sister was on the ice too wasn’t helping, but he had gotten used to that over the past few months too. He wasn’t exactly  _ stressed _ , so to say, but definitely tense. Though, he did feel he knew his new programs pretty well already. Even if they were new and still needed some time to get into. If he had gotten them a bit sooner, they’d have been better, sure, but they’re still good programs. He could probably put down a nice enough performance if everything went well. He just really hoped he wouldn’t be falling on a twizzle during the competition. Especially a twizzle in his step sequence. Getting -5 GOE on his entire step sequence would be really bad. 

His coach had already given him a scolding as he left the ice, annoyed and upset, and he stalked into the dressing room straight away. 

Of course, things started going even more south when his sister talked to him as soon as he entered the dressing room. He had really hoped she’d have been gone already. Perhaps now he was getting stressed. 

“You better win Lombardia this week,” she said simply, nothing more, nothing less. But she narrowed her eyes as she looked at him anyway. Zuko isn’t scared of his sister, really, he is not. That doesn’t change the fact that he kind of felt small now, just standing there. Was it really necessary for her to scold him too in a semi-public place? Ever since he was completely and officially thrown out after he returned from Canada, they had been on rocky terms too. But then again, it’s not like they’ve ever been on the best of terms to begin with. 

“Why? So I can return home?” He snorted. “We both know that’s not going to happen.”  _ And I don’t want it to happen anymore either.  _

The past month had been hard, but he had managed. He had gotten a job and paid for his own skating and it was definitely a lot, balancing a job and skating and now university started again, that, but it had kind of been worth it. Scratch that, it had been really worth it. 

Zuko felt  _ free.  _ In a lot of ways. He was monetarily independent now. His father literally had no say in what he could and could not do anymore. At all. Though, he admitted, only to himself, that he was still kind of scared of the man. He guessed it was only normal, after living with him and his anger for 20 years. It had been hard for Zuko to accept, but in the past month he had started realizing Ozai never really had cared for him at all. And his uncle did, almost as if he were his own son. Where he had deserved an uncle like that, he truly didn’t know. Maybe he didn’t. But he was glad he had him anyway. He didn’t tell his uncle so nearly enough, he knew that, but he was incredibly grateful for him anyway. 

But then again, even if the pressure of his father wanting him to win everything for the sake of fame and being the best in everything was gone now, there was still Zuko’s own extreme competitiveness. And he had literally grown up being told that anything but skating clean  _ and  _ winning was a failure. He had learned that the hard way. 

So he was still going to win. He had to. For himself. Because he wanted to win. And he was determined to skate well and give it his all. 

“I’m just saying,” his sister shrugged and left, but not before adding, “you better watch out.”

Which sounded mildly threatening. 

“For what? For you? For father?” He said more so toward the now-closing door. 

And that was, of course, when Ty Lee cut in. 

“Oh, are you leaving for Italy, Zuko?” She pretended like the conversation between the siblings hadn’t taken place just now. If you can even call it a conversation. Mai and she were sat on a bench across the room from him, but it’s not like the dressing room was exactly big. None of the Advanced or Junior skaters were left at the rink anymore now either. At least it was only the three of them now. He could manage that. 

He hadn’t spoken to either Ty Lee or Mai a lot in this month either, mostly due to his busy schedule. With Mai, they had probably spoken more over text than in real life. But they knew about his situation anyway, so he doubted they blamed him. 

“Tomorrow morning,” which meant he had to go home. And pack.  _ Again.  _

“Well, good luck,” Mai gave him the tiniest smile only. None of them mentioned the conversation with his sister again, as if they were scared Azula could come waltzing in again any second. 

~~

“You’re here!” Was the first thing Sokka told him when Zuko finally opened his hotel room door after obnoxiously loud knocking. 

“So are you,” he said as tried his best to suppress the smile that was growing on his face. 

“I’ve been here for a day,” Sokka shrugged as he walked past him into the room. “Jetlags are a bitch, by the way.”

“You’d think we’d be used to them by now,” Zuko replied, sitting down on the chair as Sokka sat down on the bed. Of course, he wasn’t really having that much trouble with jetlags right now as Italy really wasn’t that far, but he’s had his fair share of them to know the struggle as well. 

Sokka hummed as he laid down on his back on the bed, closing his eyes. “So, how are your new programs?” He asked a bit later. 

If it had been a year ago, Zuko would’ve thought he only asked that for his own benefit. To guess how high his chances of winning are, or to estimate the chances of Zuko humiliating himself by having a bad skate, or something like that. Now, he knew well enough he was asking out of genuine curiosity because he was interested in how Zuko was doing. Because they were  _ friends _ .

Sometimes, it was still a bit weird of a concept to understand, if he was being honest. Even if it had been going on for months now. 

“Better than I expected them to be going. I think they’re my best programs yet,” Zuko replied truthfully. He probably didn’t sound overconfident as he said it, but he did mean it. 

“I don’t doubt they are,” Sokka replied. It made Zuko smile to know his friend had so much faith in him. Or, well, faith in his new programs at least. But both of them knew how bad he was at learning choreography, so it’s basically the same as having faith in him anyway. 

“How about you?”

Sokka propped himself back up a bit on his elbows now in order to look at Zuko. There were dark circles under his eyes he noticed now, no doubt from the jetlag he had been dealing with. Still, he didn’t exactly look bad. Far from it. “I love my new programs. I hope I can deliver them well though.”

Sokka would be skating right after him during the short program, which meant he’d be able to actually watch rather than mentally prepare to skate himself. Zuko wasn’t sure if he was ready for that, considering how good the program already was a month ago. And now it should be competition ready, so even better. 

“I’m sure you can,” Zuko said. “Your program component scores are always high as is. Deserved, I may add.”

If Zuko’s heart skipped a tiny beat at Sokka’s smile he got in return, then, well, nobody needed to know. 

~~

The week didn’t feel like it dragged on forever, but it was always difficult getting back into the swing of things after the off-season. Sokka and Zuko hadn’t spoken too much during the competition itself after that first day, just so they could both focus on their own skating and practices. They still had wished each other good luck though and had made small talk as they tied their skates and such things. 

Zuko won the short program with about 0.50 points to spare. Neither of them had really completely skated clean, but for the first competition of the season and the first competition with new programs, it had been a good enough start. No falls, no bad trip-ups, just a couple of shaky landings and a missed level in one of the spins. 

But right now, Zuko couldn’t stop thinking about Sokka’s Ina Bauer. First of all, who the  _ fuck  _ puts an Ina Bauer in their short program? And more importantly, secondly; is that  _ legal?  _ That might’ve been one of the prettiest Ina Bauer's he’s ever seen a man do in competition, and he cannot stop thinking about it. It’s stupid. Really. It is. But Zuko was doomed if Sokka was going to keep doing those things. 

~~

  
  


Zuko had won the free as well, with 1.03 points to spare this time. 1.53 is by no means a big lead, but it’s still a lead. 

It was definitely going to be an interesting season. Especially considering both of them could do better and had more points to improve on. 

Sokka had done another Ina Bauer in his free skate too during the choreo sequence, a much longer one, with a lot more of leaning back. Even prettier. Even better. It was unfair. Life is unfair. He really should not be thinking about this at all though. 

And now, here they were. Waiting for the victory ceremony to begin. 

This was where it all began about a year ago. The first time Sokka had been friendly to him. Well, he had been friendly a bit earlier during the week too. Friendly is a big word though, after all, Sokka had basically insinuated Zuko had no friends at the time. But Sokka had shaken his hand during this victory ceremony, so that was friendly. Except, okay, that wasn’t exactly the first time they had done that either, everyone shakes hands during victory ceremonies. But it was the first time since they had actually spoken with each other, so close enough. 

Now, looking back on it, it really caused a very confusing year for Zuko. And it definitely changed a good portion of his life too. In fact, it might have been one of the more pivotal points in his life. All because of a simple “ _ hey, you’re Zuko, right?”  _ and a handshake. And he wasn’t really mad at it. But then again, it’s hard to be mad at anything if you just won a competition. 

Now, instead of with Jet though, they were joined by Aang, who just seemed stoked. It had been his first year doing Lombardia Trophy but he had done well. And his new programs were a hit too. 

It’s not exactly a big competition, nor is it a big venue. Still, the fans that had attended were cheering loudly as Aang took his place on the podium, then Sokka and then Zuko. To no surprise to Zuko this time around, the other actually pulled him into a hug as he passed by them on the podium to congratulate them. Both of them did, and Aang was smiling even more brightly than Sokka was. And he really didn’t mind. He also knew his smile was bigger than normal as he stood on the podium and his pictures were being taken. 

After the mandatory ‘normal’ podium pictures, the photographers motioned to Aang and Sokka to step on the first place platform with Zuko. It was a little bit crowded, as the platform was rather small, but the pictures would probably turn out well regardless. People always loved these kinds of pictures. 

And then, Zuko did something neither of the two probably expected him to do, without thinking really. He threw his left arm over Sokka’s shoulder and right arm over Aang’s, as he pulled both of them closer to him as the photographers were taking pictures. 

And he was smiling. Actually smiling. Not even faking it. And it felt almost natural. 

“Can I post that picture on my Instagram later?” Zuko asked the two later in the dressing room. 

Aang’s eyes actually grew at that question, and Sokka, too, looked rather taken aback. 

Zuko would almost be offended, but it’s not like it was something he had ever done. He never posted pictures with his competitors that openly. Pictures on the podium where everyone was just standing, looking straight forward at the cameramen, with a good distance between them, sure. He had posted such pics before plenty of times. But not friendly pictures like this, with his arms slung around his friend’s shoulders and a big smile on his face. He had never posted friendly pictures with other people, period. Not with his sister, not with Ty Lee, not even with Mai. It was just not something he ever did. 

But he was free now. He was free to post whatever the fuck he wanted. Of course, it’s not like his father ever explicitly told him he couldn’t, but Zuko knew better than to do it anyway. Now, however, Zuko really started realizing how free he felt. And how happy he felt about it too. So he was going to post the damn pictures. 

Well, if his friends allowed of course. 

Sokka’s shocked face grew into more of a smile as he replied “of course,” and Aang nodded too. 

Later, that picture quickly became Zuko’s most liked photos on his account. Deliberately though, he didn’t read the comments. Not yet. 

~~

_ SOKKA  _

Sokka wasn’t surprised to find himself sitting on Zuko’s bed once again, the day before they returned back home. It was becoming a thing. They were friends after all, and friends hung out. And when is a better time to hang out than after a competition when neither of them really had anything to do other than pack for their flights tomorrow?

And, looking at the room, Zuko had already finished packing most of his belongings anyway. 

“How did it feel, winning the first competition of the season?” Sokka asked, a bit teasingly. It had been a close one in points, but he was still pretty proud of the performance he had put up himself, as well as of Zuko’s. He still had some time before the Grand Prix season started, so his program should be more polished by then too. It could’ve gone a lot worse though. 

Zuko, who was also sitting on the bed next to him, rolled his eyes. 

As much as hanging out in hotel rooms was a normal occurrence for them by now, sitting this close to each other wasn’t. Sokka hadn’t really noticed it at first when he had sat down, but now he had, it was difficult to stop noticing. They really were sitting close. But moving away at this point would probably be awkward, so Sokka decided he’d just suck it up. 

”I only won by, like 1.53 points,” he said. 

“Is that not enough?” Sokka raised his eyebrow. 

Regardless of the fact that he was only teasing, Zuko’s face changed to a more serious, and almost sad, expression. 

“It is, it’s just—,” Zuko hesitated for a second, and he was pulling a weird face. “I wonder how many people online think I didn’t deserve this win,” he admitted. 

And, well, that’s a thing. Debates on scoring were always a thing. “It’s just a challenger series competition,” Sokka tried to comfort him, “it’s not  _ that  _ important.”  _ And you did deserve the win.  _

But, of course, it was that important. Scoring was important. It was still an official ISU competition. It was still a competition where official world records could be broken and it still counted towards the world standings. 

Zuko shook his head though. “It doesn’t matter. Getting overscored just really sucks sometimes. Because I know people online are often right and—“

“You seem to forget I’m from a big federation too. You know people also say I get overscored, right? And maybe, they’re right too,” Sokka didn’t really like to think of it, but they all read their protocols after competitions. And they’ve all read the competition’s protocols too. There have been times where he was sure one of his jumps had been underrotated and it hadn’t gotten called, or where his GOE was doubtable at best. And Zuko has had those moments too. 

It is unfair, of course it is, but there’s nothing you can do about it, even if you wanted to. Sokka, like most skaters, wanted nothing more than fair scoring. But judges and federations are like that sometimes. And talking about it as a skater is basically career suicide. 

“Have you looked at the protocols yet?” Zuko asked instead, and Sokka shook his head. It wasn’t something he’d liked to do right after a competition had ended. 

“What? You want to analyze our programs?” Sokka teased again. 

“God, no,” Zuko replied. 

Both of them knew the rulebook well, obviously. It was a must. Most skaters did. They knew how to get high GOE score, where they could lose points in GOE, who on the panel called what deductions and why. But sometimes it felt as if the judges themselves didn’t know them. Or didn’t take them into account, that is. 

But Zuko was still talking about his insecurities with Sokka. And it felt kind of intimate, in a weird way. Especially now Zuko was looking at him as they sat so close, really looking at him, like he genuinely trusted him. 

_ Wild.  _

“Talking about the internet and skating fans,” suddenly, Sokka felt brave. “Do you know how good your new costumes look? People online are losing their minds. You know what? I might agree with them.”

Zuko suddenly made a little choking noise as his cheeks grew red and his eyes grew. Hu. Who knew? 

“Be serious,” Zuko choked out as he tried rolling his eyes (and miserably failing). And wow, Sokka was fucked. Who would’ve guessed a blushing Zuko would be this cute? 

It had been Sokka who had started this, sure, but that still didn’t stop his own cheeks from growing a bit redder too. 

He stopped himself before he could say sorry, which would probably make things more awkward. 

“I am wild,” Sokka teased in return, with a sly grin on his face. 

And wow, Zuko’s cheeks were  _ really  _ red. 

“I mean, red is your colour.”

“And blue is yours,” Zuko said as he composed himself, but Sokka guessed it was meant as a compliment. 

Their silence grew more uncomfortable for a few seconds, and man did Sokka hate his own non-existing brain-to-mouth filter. He had really fucked it up, hadn’t he?

Just as he was about to say something to cover up the silence, Zuko started speaking again. “Sometimes I think people are just intrigued by the scar. Nothing more.”

Sokka nearly stared at him.  _ He can’t genuinely think that’s the only thing people think about when talking about his appearance, right _ ?

Perhaps Zuko was right in the sense that, yes, people were definitely invested in the ‘mystery’ behind his scar. But he was also  _ hot.  _ Like. There was no way Zuko didn’t realize, was there? 

“I don’t really think that’s it,” Sokka said, trying to sound as normal as possible as he tried to keep his mind away from the  _ ‘Zuko is hot’ _ -thought. 

“It’s the first thing people notice,” Zuko argued. 

“That’s—“  _ true?  _ Sokka can’t even really remember if it was the first thing he noticed about Zuko. It’s so long ago since he had seen him for the first time. Sokka didn’t even really remember the day. They had been competing against each other for so long, but Sokka could not for the life of him remember when it was that they actually met each other for the first time. Only when they started being top junior skaters, going against each other in junior Grand Prix Finals, he remembered Zuko being there. And him wanting to win against Zuko. But his career in the junior circuit has been quite a while ago too, and Zuko’s skating is the only thing he can really remember from it. 

“When did we first meet?” He asks instead, “or like, see each other?”

“What?” Zuko looked up at him again. 

“Do you remember?” Asked Sokka. 

“I think—,” Zuko started, looking unsure of himself. “I know, I was 14 at the time. And it was your first Junior Grand prix. In Germany.”

Sokka, baffled by the fact that Zuko actually knew these things, couldn’t help but ask, “you remember that? I didn’t even do well in that competition,” he chuckled. “Did you?”

Sokka remembered that competition of course, he was just old enough to enter that year. It was his first big competition and he had been so nervous, but so excited as well. But there’s really no reason for Zuko to know what his first Junior Grand Prix competition was. 

“I knew all my competitors. And you were new, so I knew you too. I had to,” Zuko looked away, almost in shame. 

_ Why does a 14 year old know all of his competitors?  _ Sokka couldn’t help but think that was a bit strange. Top competitors? Sure. But just… all of them? 

“Why would you—“

“Do you want to know how I got this scar?” Zuko cut him off. 

He had no idea what that had to do with anything, nor why he had changed the subject to that. Especially considering the subject it was changed to seemed even less pleasant. 

Of course he was curious, but he still didn’t want to pressure Zuko into saying anything. 

“Only if you want to tell me.”

His friend nodded slowly, and kept silent for a few seconds as he suddenly took interest in a lamp all the way across the room, avoiding eye contact. Just as Sokka thought he’d change the subject again, Zuko spoke up. “That was the first competition I did badly in. I fell 5 times in the free alone.”

“I don’t think I follow,” he admitted. What did that have to do with anything? What? Did he fall on his eye? Obviously not, but this made no sense. 

“My father—,” Zuko, still not looking at him, took a deep breath. For a second, Sokka wanted to tell him that it was okay. That he didn’t have to go on if he didn’t want to. But Zuko already knew he didn’t have to tell him, and he still chose to. He went on. “He was really angry at that. I don’t think he meant to hurt my as bad as he did but-... well,” he gestured vaguely at his scar, still not looking at Sokka as he did so. 

“Your dad?” Was the only thing Sokka could say because,  _ what the fuck? _ He felt his hands balling up in response, digging his own nails in his palm. 

_ What the actual fuck.  _

“Please don’t tell anyone?” Zuko finally looked back at him pleaded. 

It took everything in Sokka not to stand up and yell in anger. Not at Zuko, never at Zuko, just that _ fucking bastard _ . But that was probably the last thing his friend wanted, so he gathered every bit of self control in his body as he tried to calm down. 

“I won’t,” he promised and closed his eyes in anger. “God. You know that’s not okay, right?” 

Zuko shrugged. “I guess I know that now.”

“Wait, when we first met, well, spoke, you said we couldn’t be friends. Is that why?”

Zuko nodded, but only ever so slightly, to a point where Sokka wasn’t sure if he was even imagining it. 

Man, this was fucked up. The amount of pressure Zuko must be under ever competition must be surreal. If his father did that when he was only 14. And with him being thrown out recently, Sokka doubted it had been a one-time thing only. 

Sokka finally unballed his hands, as he reached out to Zuko’s. He wished he could comfort him better, he wished he knew how to. But they might be friends, and he might have a small (okay, scratch that, maybe big) crush on the guy, but he was by no means a zuko-expert yet. 

“You don’t live there anymore though, right?” 

“No,” Zuko looked down at their joined hands as Sokka lightly squeezed his. “I haven’t seen my father in months.” 

Zuko wasn’t crying, he didn’t even have a very readable expression on his face at all. He might have been trying to cover up his emotions as well as he could. 

It was painful seeing him like this too. 

“What about your sister?”

Not much of a reaction followed after that, and Sokka was scared he had crossed a line now. He was being way too nosy, he knew. But Zuko had started it, and he knew he could stop if he wanted to. 

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to talk about it,” he squeezed the other’s hand again. 

“She’s—- she’s really good at skating,” Zuko said. 

There was no denying Azula was on another level when it came to skating. She had both talent and put a lot of work in it. Or at least, so it seemed. But if Zuko thought he wasn’t good at skating, if he wasn’t one of the best skaters in the world, he was dead wrong. 

“Zuko, you’re literally number one on the world standing right now. Don’t you dare act like you’re not good at skating.” 

“I’m over this conversation now,” Zuko whispered as he looked away. 

“That’s okay. I’m glad you’re safe now.” 

Sokka lifted his hands from Zuko’s, only spread his arms, and kind of to his surprise, Zuko returned the hug. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk where I got the headcanon that Sokka would be the more flexible and gracefull of the two of them but I will die on this hill.
> 
> Kudos to everyone that can find the Les Misérables reference in this! ^^


	18. Skate America (2019)

_ ZUKO _

Zuko was absolutely exhausted when he returned from Italy. That last conversation with Sokka had perhaps been the most exhausting part of the whole trip too, and he felt completely drained for days afterwards. He usually didn’t speak about his family, or what had happened to him. It would make him look weak, vulnerable. As a somewhat public figure, one needs to be careful about these things. 

And yet, he had trusted Sokka. Even when he knew he didn’t have to. Even when it meant he had told so much of himself to his main competitor. He could almost hear Azula’s voice saying how stupid he had been, how he trusted way too easily. How, if Sokka wanted, he could easily tell the press, just to humiliate Zuko or even worse. But at least the rational part of his brain told him Sokka would never. 

He’d like to pretend he didn’t know what came over him when he said everything. He’d like to pretend like it just accidentally happened, like he hadn’t actually meant to. But the truth is, he had told Sokka because he knew Sokka wouldn’t see him as weak if he knew. At the time, he was fully aware of what he had been doing. And now, he didn’t even regret it either. His main point of concern had been that Sokka would treat him differently. And perhaps that was still a big point of concern, but for now, everything still seemed okay. 

~~

A few weeks later, when he had gotten back into his regular, hectic schedule, Zuko made a mistake. A big, big mistake in fact. A terrible mistake. Maybe it was time to just delete all of his social media and throw his phone somewhere in the ocean.    
  


It had all started innocently, really. He just had been scrolling through his Twitter notifications, something he didn’t do  _ that _ often, to begin with, as he saw someone with an…  _ interesting _ profile picture, let’s say. The small, round picture next to the display name and handle gave away enough as to what exactly it was and still, curiosity killed the cat, right? So, Zuko clicked on it. Even after he had seen the username of the account. 

The profile picture itself was of Sokka and him during one of the finals of a show this summer, both dressed in similar outfits, with a bunch of little heart emojis around it. And Zuko was really looking at Sokka with eyes full of admiration.  _ Fuck. _ He never even realized he had been so obvious before. And to think he thought he had been subtle. Or at least somewhat subtle. 

Of course, he knew their fans had been speculating about their relationship since day one, even if the two of them never really discussed it with each other, other than the occasional vague mention. But every time the fans were getting closer to the truth, especially now with Zuko’s massive ‘crush’, he had stayed away from it as much as possible. Or tried to at least. He should be trying. 

He was going to click away and go to sleep, he really was. Until he noticed the pinned tweet of the account. 

  
  


** _@ZukkaTrash_ **

_ <3 Thread of sweet Zukka moments <3 _

_ 1.6K retweets 3.5K likes _

  
  


If he shouldn’t have clicked away before, he definitely should have at that moment. But it was late already, and he was tired enough to not even think about it. 

  
The number of likes and retweets on most of the pictures, videos, and interviews was really blowing Zuko’s mind too. Over thousands of people thought he and Sokka were a good match, apparently. It would’ve maybe made him happy if he wasn’t so terrified. They should talk about this before it became way too uncomfortable. But what if the mere bringing up of that subject made everything uncomfortable? Zuko’d rather not ruin his friendship.   
  
Either way, it didn’t really stop him from scrolling either. Because perhaps the thread had a point. He was intrigued. 

Some of the pictures he had never even seen before, like the one during the Grand Prix final last year, where Sokka had been visibly teasing him with how his hair stuck up after he had taken off the flower crown. 

Some of the interviews he had never heard before either. There was a clip from back in 2017, a press conference from a competition he had won and where Sokka had been second. Of course, the press tended to ask questions about competitors, and of course, you’re never going to be openly negative about competitors. You definitely could, but not if you wanted to not be hated. And there was really no point in doing so either. Everyone just kind of said what was the best to say in that moment, as far as Zuko had been taught anyway. Hence why he had never really taken time to think about those press conferences. “ _ What is it like to compete against Zuko?” _ A journalist had asked. “ _ He’s very determined to win. It pushed me to my maximum as well.” _ Sokka had replied, though it was visible in the clip that Zuko apparently couldn’t care less. Current Zuko though couldn’t help but smile, thinking about how he had helped Sokka in his skating without even knowing it. He wondered if he had helped others with their skating too, by pushing them or inspiring them.

There was something else he noticed too though. As the pictures and videos were mostly in chronological order, with the thread being started 10 months ago. Seeing them all together like this made Zuko realize how much happier he had visibly gotten over the past year. With each competition, with the exception of the World Championships, he had seemed happier than the one before. Especially during Lombardia this season and the shows he had done this summer. A feeling of relief flooded him, though he was not sure why. 

The Tweets were making him smile more than he had anticipated, and by now he was too far in to not look at all of them until the end. So, he kept scrolling until he reached the end thread. 

Looking at the thread itself wasn’t his biggest mistake though, oh no. His biggest mistake would be accidentally liking two of the tweets. One in the beginning and one near the end. And then not noticing, putting his phone away to go to bed, and waking up to what counts for him as a fuckton of texts. 

_ Really  _ a lot of texts. He didn’t even know Jet, Suki and Katara had his number in the first place. Why the fuck where they texting him? Those were definitely the first texts he had ever gotten from those three. 

**Mai: ** What did you do?

**Mai: ** Please tell me you didn’t accidentally like two tweets analyzing your relationship with Sokka

Oh no. 

_ Oh no.  _

He hadn’t. Surely he hadn’t. 

**Ty Lee:** check your twitter

**Ty Lee:** maybe don’t check your twitter notifications though

**Suki:** is this your weird way of flirting? Bc im no complete Sokka expert, but as his good friend, it might be working

**Katara: ** care to explain?

**Jet: ** this is hilarious I cannot wait to see you talk yourself out of this 

And then, there were the ones from Sokka. He definitely wasn’t looking forward to opening those. 

For a moment, he debated on just deleting them without reading. That would probably be a good idea. 

Except, it isn’t. Obviously it isn’t. What had he been thinking? They’d be seeing each other again in less than a month, there was no way he could act as if nothing happened. He groaned and hit his face back into his pillow as he opened the texts. 

**Sokka: ** so you saw the thread too? ;) 

**Sokka: ** seems like we’ve had a lot of Moments™️ ;)

**Sokka:** theyre right though the pictures in the tweets you liked are nice 

There were a million excuses going through his head right now.  _ My twitter got hacked. Azula stole my phone. My dog stepped on my phone while twitter was open and it liked it accidentally.  _

He didn’t even have a dog. 

So, he replied the only thing he could think of. Probably an even worse idea. 

**Zuko: ** They are nice pictures. 

Reading into Sokka’s texts right now would probably be the worst thing he could do right now. Sokka was just teasing him, nothing more. Zuko couldn’t exactly blame him. 

Finally, he replied to Mai only. He’d deal with the rest later. 

**Zuko:** I need to deactivate my Twitter account. 

**Mai: ** you’re being overly dramatic rn

**Mai: ** it’s a good thread though

~~

_ SOKKA  _

Sokka wasn’t nervous for the Grand Prix. He wasn’t exactly nervous to  _ see  _ Zuko again either. 

What he was kind of nervous about though, was the thought of whether Zuko would bring up what happened a few weeks ago, when he had liked those few tweets. 

Ever since that one text Zuko had replied to Sokka’s (probably bad) attempt at flirting, he seemed to be dead set on not bringing it up at all. And Sokka hadn’t really tried to either. He wasn’t about to make it awkward. But he did wonder what that had been about. 

It had been a popular thread anyways, one that was very popular with the fans too. Even if Sokka tried he couldn’t avoid seeing it. He had seen it a long while ago for the first time, and he had gone through it enough himself as well, not that he would ever admit that out loud. It was a good thread, admittedly. There was one time where he almost retweeted the thread himself. Luckily, at least he talked himself out of that. Zuko probably wouldn’t like it very much if he had done that. Or maybe he would’ve, who knows. Fuck, they really should talk about this. 

He wasn’t stalking Zuko’s social media though. Really, he wasn’t. But, as most of the fans that flooded his notifications had right after pointed out, it had been 3 am when Zuko had liked the pictures. And really, what was Zuko doing at 3 am going through a very long thread all about the two of them?

Sokka couldn’t help but feel his heart beating faster at that. 

~~ 

When they actually saw each other for the first time again in the dressing room before practise at Skate America it had been, well, anticlimactic. Zuko looked determined to act as if nothing had happened at all. It’s not like something really had happened anyway. 

“How are your programs doing?” Zuko asked as they tied their skates. There was a good distance between them, both sitting on different benches. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Sokka teased. “They’re better than a month ago though. I hope.”

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Zuko and Sokka,” Jet walked into the room, looking way too smug.  _ Great.  _ He sat down next to Zuko, throwing his right arm over the other boy and crowding into his personal space. 

Zuko looked visibly uncomfortable as he took Jet’s arm in an attempt to throw it off and get him out if his personal space. 

Jet really could be fucking annoying at times. 

“I saw something interesting floating by on Twitter a few weeks ago,” he smiled anyway, determined to keep his arm right where it was, leaning way too close over Zuko and Sokka was three seconds away from getting Jet away from Zuko himself. 

But doing that in a public dressing room with other people might not be the best idea. Even when said other people, a boy who had just turned senior from America and another boy who had been in seniors for longer now from Japan, were doing their best pretending like they weren’t witnessing the scene that was going on. 

Sokka glared at Jet as strongly as he could, though he was mostly being ignored. 

“Maybe if you spent more time practising instead of looking at other people’s Twitter profiles, you’d have a chance of beating me this competition,” Zuko snapped, doing his best to lean further away without falling off the bench. 

Jet, looking way too confident, clicked his tongue. “You sound awfully confident for a guy that only got in third at worlds.” 

“You sound awfully confident for a guy that’s only third in the world standings,” Zuko countered. 

“Listen here, you—“ 

“Jet,” Sokka warned sternly, knowing it probably didn’t sound as threatening as he had hoped for. 

Jet pulled back from Zuko, putting his hands up, acting as innocent as he could. But he wasn’t exactly hiding the smirk well. “Defending him? Interesting,” he took his bag again and sat down the other side of the room. 

And that had been the only thing said about that for the rest of the week. 

~~

“Congrats on your victory,” Zuko said as soon as he walked out of the kiss and cry after his free skate. Being the last to skate, he didn’t even bother to take off his skates for the victory ceremony. Zuko had by no means skated badly, but there were still some mistakes that had cost him his win, especially now Sokka had skated clean. Jet was in third with 12 points behind them though. 

“Thanks. You skated quite well too.”

“You better watch out because I’m going to kick your ass at the Grand Prix final though,” he smiled teasingly. 

“You assume we will make the Grand Prix Final,” Sokka replied. Though it was more than likely they would, he still didn’t want to think about it yet. The Final was still months away, a lot of things could happen in that time. 

Zuko shrugged, “just a guess.”

“You want to watch the ladies with me after our victory ceremony?” Sokka asked. The women were about to skate next anyway, and it wouldn’t take that much time either. 

“I should probably study...,” Zuko trailed off, before shaking his head and adding, “actually, yes. Let’s do it.”

~~

It could be his imagination at play. It probably was his imagination at play. But it was almost as if Zuko was leaning closer towards him than usual as they sat next to each other now, watching six of the girls warming up on the ice. The arena wasn’t filled up by any means, but there were still a good few people that came to watch. Though, the two of them were sitting in a more quiet corner with fewer people around. Some of the other skaters were sitting in the row in front of them. 

Before Sokka even realized it himself, he threw his left arm around Zuko and pulled him a bit closer, only ever so slightly. It was cold. It’s an ice rink. Zuko was warm. For some reason, he always was. It had been a logical decision, really. 

To his surprise, Zuko didn’t pull away at all. Not like he had with Jet. Not that the circumstances are anything like they had been with Jet earlier this week. 

Zuko did turn his head towards Sokka though. And their faces were close, way too close. Sokka nearly pulled away his arm himself. Fuck. This was awkward, wasn’t it? But, once again to his surprise, all Zuko did was smile ever so slightly before turning his face back towards the ice rink, where the first girl was now alone on the ice, ready for her music to start. 

Sokka, at that moment, was way too tired and amazed to analyze what that smile might have meant. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

A groan slipped out as there was a loud banging on the door, waking him up. He groaned even louder when the banging didn’t stop after a few seconds. _Seriously, what the hell?_ On autopilot, he dragged himself out of bed to open the door, ready to snap at whoever woke him up in the middle of the night. He could already feel himself getting angry. 

_ Sokka.  _ He should’ve known. Really, of course it was Sokka. That’s the only person he could think of besides Azula that’d even do that. 

“What?” He snapped, hoping he sounded annoyed enough, trying to look at Sokka’s face. The hallway was too bright, way too bright. 

Much to his dismay, Sokka was smiling.  _ Oh no.  _ Nothing good could come out of a smiling Sokka in front of his door in the middle of the night.

“Come skating with me,” he smiled. 

That was it. He was losing his mind. “Excuse me?” 

“You heard me. Come skating with me!”

“What time is it?” Maybe he had just overslept. Maybe it was already time for the gala practice and he was late. 

“Four,” Sokka said, and well, okay, he hadn’t overslept. 

Unless gala practices were suddenly in the middle of the night, which Zuko highly doubted. 

“You’re crazy,” was all he could say. If it were anyone else, he’d have slammed the door closed by now. He probably should do that. His hands tightened against the doorframe. 

“Please?” Sokka asked as he put his foot in the doorway, probably sensing Zuko was close to closing the door right in his face. 

“Gala practice is at seven. Come get me then,” Zuko rolled his eyes. 

“No, think about it,” only now he noticed the other was already wearing his skating clothes and had his bag slung around his shoulder. “There’s no one at the rink now. I asked the owner, they said we could practice at these hours if we wanted to. I don’t think they thought I actually would, but well... I even got the key?” With a smirk, he opened his hand, showing the key in his palm. 

How he had even convinced the owner of a rink to give some random boy they probably didn’t know a key to said rink, was something Zuko would probably never understand. Though admittedly, Sokka has enough charisma to talk people into things for sure. Still. A key. To an ice rink. Probably to the whole facility. Are they crazy? 

Said charisma was also working on Zuko right now, sadly enough. 

“Don’t you have another Grand Prix next week? Go back to bed,” Zuko said, knowing full well he had already lost the battle. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Sokka smiled, bouncing on his feet, and  _ fuck,  _ what was Zuko supposed to do? “I’ll wait here in the hallway for you to get your stuff. I’ll give you ten minutes,” he added, closing the door himself with a grin.

Zuko was really going to have to learn how to say no to Sokka. 

~~

By 04:43, they were on the ice, with a thick fog hanging in the air. He had skated on empty ice rinks enough before, and he was no stranger to practising before 5am either. Still, this was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

“This is ridiculous,” he sighed, still tired and rubbing his eyes. 

The other smiled. “Ah, but you came with me anyway! Come on, admit it, there’s nothing better than being alone on an ice rink.”

It’s not exactly being alone when you’re with two people though. 

Without a warning, Zuko felt the light pressure of a hand around his wrist, and then a more heavy pull as Sokka started skating way too fast for this hour in the morning. 

“God, do you want me to fall?” Zuko said, okay, more so shouted, as he tried to get his feet to work properly and keep up with the speed. 

“Let’s race!” Before he could even say no, the pressure around his wrist was gone, and Sokka took off even faster. 

Just as he was about to sigh, say no, and stop completely, his competitive nature finally started to kick in.  _ Sokka wants a race? He’ll get a race. _

They were quite far away from each other already though. 

“What? Are you planning on changing disciplines? Want to do short track instead?” Zuko’s loud voice echoed in the empty building, and he could already feel his breath becoming heavier.

“Who knows, I might,” not looking back as he picked up even more speed as he did some crossovers, Sokka laughed, not even sounding remotely out of breath. “you better don’t though. You can’t even catch me!”

“Oh? Is that so?” 

_ Alright. Game on. If that’s how you want it.  _

Zuko had already lost once this weekend, he wasn’t about to do it again. Even if this ‘competition’ they were doing now didn’t actually mean anything. 

Skating just for speed was not something he was used to. It’s not something he did a lot. But skating fast is still something you need for figure skating. Especially when doing quads, getting enough speed was crucial. So, while he definitely wasn’t going as fast as speed skaters were, his pace was still getting faster by every stroke and crossover.

He was catching up too.  _ Aha! _ His hair was blowing wildly in the wind and the cold was almost painful against his cheeks, but he couldn’t give up now. He was almost there. 

That is, until Sokka decided to suddenly stop and turn around, smiling. 

_ Oh no.  _

Zuko frantically tried to stop as well, but he was going too fast, and Sokka was too close already. Maybe if he hadn’t been so tired, his reflexes would’ve been better, but alas. 

He couldn’t even fully register what was happening, and it was too late now to try and avoid a crash. 

“Alright I—,”

A loud thud echoed in the rink as Zuko’s chest smashed into Sokka’s and, by the sound of it, Sokka’s back into the border. 

“Oof,” Sokka puffed out, and Zuko wanted to say something witty, or even make a snide remark about how this was all his fault anyway. Maybe even ask if everything was okay, considering how loud the sound of the crash against the border was. Anything really. But his chest was completely pressed against Sokka now, and his mind was going blank. 

_ Move back! _ His brain shouted at him.  _ Get a fucking grip! _

“I—,” he said instead, blinking slowly, trying to get his thought back in order. Only now, he realized he was gripping Sokka’s waist with both of his hands. In return, Sokka’s hands were resting on his hips and  _ oh no. This is bad. Every bad.  _

His throat felt as if it was closing off, making it hard to breathe, as if he wasn’t already out of breath before from the speed skating. If he only leaned in a few centimetres more, their noses would touch. Their  _ mouths  _ would touch. 

Sokka, probably still trying to catch his breath after the collision, tipped his foreheads forwards against Zuko’s as he breathed heavily. His own hands gripped tighter against the other’s waist, who didn’t seem to be complaining. 

There was absolutely no way this was happening. Nope. No. No way. Sokka was just still surprised from the crash, hence, the whole forehead-pressing thing. He had hit his back pretty badly. Fuck, was Zuko taking advantage of the situation? This was bad, very bad. Should they get a doctor? 

Finally, after what seemed to last both two seconds and two hours at the same time of having their foreheads pressed against each other, after way too long of having Sokka’s hands on his hips and his own hands resting on Sokka’s waist, he snapped out of it. In horror and realization, he dropped his hands immediately, taking as big of a step back as he could, nearly tripping in the process. 

He had to say something. Anything. 

“Let’s do some jump,” Zuko took off before he could even look at the expression on Sokka’s face. 


	19. GP season (2019)

_ SOKKA _

It was only after Skate Canada, which he won by quite a margin, when Sokka really started thinking about it. 

He might be oblivious, but not  _ this  _ oblivious. Or at least, he didn’t think he was. Zuko had been acting weird during Skate America. Well, perhaps he himself had been acting weird too, which would just add to his superstition, considering they were acting weird in the same kind of way. Or maybe he was just  _ really  _ overthinking it. 

The more he thought about it though, the more it added up. The liking the tweets, the not moving away when Sokka threw his arm around his shoulders, the way too awkward atmosphere after The Incident™️ on the ice rink at 5 am. Sokka wasn’t exactly new to romance or relationships, he’s had his fair share in the past. He could at least read  _ some  _ of the signs. Those were signs, right?

But then again, Zuko probably was new to all of those things. And he seemed to be new to the whole concept of having friends too, so who knows? Maybe that’s just the way he acted in general. Maybe he doesn’t know how to act. Not that he blamed Zuko for it, but it would definitely make things easier if he knew how Zuko normally acted around friends. 

If Sokka was sure that Zuko was, in fact, kind of returning his feelings, maybe he’d make a move next time they saw each other. He really needed to be certain of it though, because there was no way Zuko would react well to it otherwise. Just becoming friends had taken them six months, Sokka wasn’t about to ruin that. He wasn’t about to go back to the starting point. 

So he needed a plan. Just to figure it out. Just to see if he wasn’t reading all the signs wrong before he did something stupid. If nothing came of it, he’d deal with it. Though he did hope something would come out of it. 

Coming up with a plan however wasn’t as easy as he had hoped it to be. Especially considering how little they actually saw each other. Which would be a whole other problem as well. They only saw each other during a handful of competitions, and then a handful of shows. Sure, they texted a lot lately. Sometimes, they even Facetimed, but they still didn’t meet up in person a lot of times. Even when they did, there would be a competition to focus on first and foremost. And then there’s the whole thing with time zones which makes any type of communication even more difficult. What would they do if they did, in fact, have mutual feelings for each other? Relationships are one thing, long-distance relationships are another. Sokka had no real experience with those yet. Or well, he kind of had, if you counted the 2 and a half weeks he dated Suki, but that had been a while ago and hadn’t lasted very long. 

But for now, he was taking one step at a time. No need to think about the whole relationship thing yet. Maybe his sister could help. 

~~

“Let me get this straight,” Katara sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, “you want  _ me _ to help  _ you _ with your plan to figure out if Zuko actually likes you in the same way you like him?” 

“Exactly!” Sokka smiled. He wouldn’t be seeing Zuko again until the Grand Prix final (if the other made it at least), and that was still more than a month away. Katara, on the other hand, would be going to Rostelecom cup, in only about a weeks time. Aang would be going too, but for this, Katara seemed to be the safer option. Except that Zuko seemed to be kind of scared of Katara. Maybe he should’ve gone with Aang after all. Well...

His sister didn’t exactly look very amused. “You know I have an important Grand Prix I need to focus on while in Russia, right?”

“Of course,” he patted her shoulder. “But you can do it after the free skate. Or like, during gala practice. I don’t want you to lose focus during the actual competition.”

It wasn’t like he wanted it to be her main priority. She needed this Grand Prix to qualify for the Grand Prix final after all. With her second place at Skate Canada, she had good chances of making it though. But Rostelecom cup had some tough competition for her, with Azula, Ty Lee and Toph, who had gotten improved so much in the last year, all going too. So, of course he wanted the competition itself to be her main priority. But just during the gala practices couldn’t hurt, right?

She scoffed. “How generous of you.”

“Please?” He pleaded. 

Katara, still not exactly looking sure, sighed. “Why don’t you talk to him about it if you want to know so badly? I think some more communication could be healthy for the two of you.” 

“I don’t want to fuck up our friendship,” Sokka said, “I just… I need to be sure.”

She shook her head and said, “I will tell you this right now. Zuko likes you. Yes,  _ likes _ you,” she put the emphasis on the word like, making clear its meaning. 

“What proof do you have though?” He crossed his arms. If he didn’t have the same suspicion, he wouldn’t be asking her in the first place. But it was just that; a suspicion. He doubted his sister would have any more proof. 

“What kind of proof do you need?” She asked, rolling her eyes. 

“Something. Anything.”

“Alright, I’ll give you something. He never likes anything on Twitter, and yet, he liked not one but two Tweets about the two of you,” she pulled up her phone, showing Zuko’s Twitter profile as if he hadn’t seen it before. As if his Twitter mentions weren’t filled for days with his fans talking about it, “have you seen the profile picture of the person that posted this?” Of course he had seen that too. Multiple times. Maybe it was a problem. 

“That doesn’t count,” sighed Sokka. “I already knew that! I’ll think of a backup plan too to figure it out myself. But please? Pretty please?” He pleaded once more, gripping her arm and trying to pull off the best pout he could. 

Katara, very reluctantly, gave in. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

~~

_ ZUKO _

“I can’t believe a year has passed since last year Rostelecom cup,” his uncle said as they were driving to the rink. It was the only competition his uncle had watched live last season as he couldn’t make it to Russian nationals or any of his competitions outside of Russia, but he gladly had taken time off to come to watch this Grand Prix again this season, “I haven’t seen you skate live in so long. I’m sure your new programs are very good.”

“You’ve already seen the videos though, right?” Zuko asked, even though he knew for a fact that he had. 

His uncle hummed before he broke the silence again. “What placement do you need to advance to the final?”

“It’ll depend on what some other skaters do at NHK next week, but it should be doable either way,” unless he skated badly, it’d be unlikely he’d end off the podium. And he wasn’t exactly planning on skating badly. Besides, he had a good track record for Rostelecom cup up until now, and he didn’t feel as if his luck would stop this season. If anything, he felt more calm than he normally did. Getting in second at Skate America wasn’t exactly something that had made him very happy, but it also motivated him to do better now. He had to make the Grand Prix final. And he had to do well this season. For himself though, not for anyone else. Skating for himself was more calming than he had expected it to be.

“Sokka has already made it, right?” His uncle had been kind enough to not bring up Sokka too many times over the past few months. Even when he very much knew now that Zuko liked the boy. If Zuko was being honest, he had expected more teasing about it. He was glad the teasing was being kept to a minimum though. 

“He won both Skate Canada and Skate America, so yea,” besides one tiny mistake, the other had skated clean in Canada. And when skated cleanly, his new programs truly were on another level. 

After parking the car, Zuko took a quick look at the time. He was early, which meant he still had a lot of time to warm up and but on his costume. 

“I’m sorry we’re so early,” he said anyway. The men’s short program was the first event of the day, so his uncle was losing a lot of time by coming with him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t warned his uncle about that before though. 

“I already told you, I don’t mind,” his uncle gave him one final hug and one final  _ ‘good luck’ _ before Zuko went off to the warm-up area. 

~~

Rostelecom Cup, as expected, hadn’t been the most difficult competition for him to win. The energy the crowd gave off was amazing as well, pretty much as expected when skating here on home ice. Many of his fans came, and the ice rink quickly filled with plushies after the music stopped and as he bowed. There were some banners too, which he couldn’t help but smile at. His fans had no way of knowing what had been going on in the past few months with him, but their energy still felt very supporting. He was glad for it. 

Azula had won the women’s category as well, which was just as expected. It seems like the World Championship had been her only slip up too, as she was back on track and destroying the competition completely. Still, she looked off.  _ Something _ was off. 

They didn’t speak a lot. Or at all, really. They saw each other at the ice rink nearly daily, but they didn’t really  _ speak.  _ They skated, they practised, they acted like they didn’t know each other. In return, no one at the ice rink, including their coach, even mentioned it. Not that anyone on the ice other than Ty Lee and Mai would even dare to bring it up. 

Katara had gotten in second, and Ty Lee, who hadn’t skated as well as she had probably hoped, for in third. Neither of the two skated badly though. 

And now, it was gala practice again. One of his least favourite parts of competitions (though, even if he wouldn’t admit it, it really wasn’t that bad when Sokka was also there. But he wasn’t. And neither was Mai.)

With Ty Lee hanging out with Azula though, Zuko guessed his safest option was to hang around Aang and Katara during the gala practice. At least they were somewhat his friends. Or perhaps not friends exactly, but they were Sokka’s friend. And he was Sokka’s friend. That must count for something, right? Aang seemed like he liked to be friends with everyone anyways. And Katara, well, she did say she wanted to like him considering her brother liked him. 

Just as he was about to skate towards them though, he felt a hand on his wrist. 

“Jet,” because of fucking  _ course _ it was. Zuko had done a good job avoiding him all week, it hadn’t even been that hard this time. During the victory ceremony, he had even forced out a ‘congratulations’ as he shook the other’s hands. He had really hoped that’d be all this week though. After Skate Canada he was especially wary of the guy. 

“Zuko,” Jet smiled, looking rather amused. “Well done today.”

“Thank you?” He tried shaking his hand loose from Jet’s grip, who reluctantly let go. 

“Zuko!” Katara’s voice suddenly was heard just over Toph’s music who was currently doing a run-through of her gala program. Sure enough, both Katara and Aang were skating towards them now. 

Jet’s smile only grew. “Your sister-in-law is calling,” he said, patting Zuko’s shoulder a couple of times before skating off, not looking out for Toph at all. Not that she really needed it, Zuko had never seen her skate into anyone somehow. But even then, you should look out for whoever is doing their program on the music. It’s common decency. It’s an unwritten rule in every skating club. 

_ Well, that was weird.  _

“What did he want?” Katara eyed Jet, who was at the other side of the rink by now, talking to one of the pair skaters, who was giggling to him in response to whatever he had told her. 

“No idea,” Zuko shrugged. 

Katara nodded before turning to her friend. “Aang, can I talk to Zuko for a minute. Alone?” 

Aang’s eyes went from Katara to Zuko, back to Katara, blinking a couple of times. “Uhm, sure.” He looked about just as confused as Zuko felt. 

Of course, Zuko wasn’t  _ nervous  _ to talk to Katara alone. Except, maybe he as a little bit. She had said she wanted to like and trust him. But she had also kind of threatened him straight afterwards, so really, who knew? 

Only when Aang had crossed the ice to practice one of his spins (a layback spin) a little bit, she started talking again. 

“What are your intentions with my brother?” She crossed her arms, her face looking stern. 

Zuko suddenly felt his throat closing. “My- my  _ intentions _ ?” 

Katara nodded. “Your intentions.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said. Partially because he didn’t, partially because he also didn’t really want to know what she was talking about. “Did Sokka say something?”

“He didn’t,” she replied, her face unreadable, which wasn’t helping at all. “I just wanted to know what that tweet-liking was about?”

Oh. So they  _ still  _ were talking about that? He should’ve guessed not everyone would act like it never happened just as he had though. “I can’t like tweets now?”

“You can,” she sighed now, dropping her arms. “I’m sorry, I just— I just wanted to know.”

“I just saw the tweets. I thought the pictures in them were nice so I liked them, that’s all,” it wasn’t really a lie. They were nice. Only he hadn’t exactly meant to like them. 

Katara nodded, her face becoming softer. “I guess that’s fair. Zuko—,”

Just as she was about to continue, Toph's music ended. 

“You’re up next, right?” It was more so a statement than a question though. 

“Right, we’ll talk later.”

And if Zuko avoided her in order to not talk later, well, maybe that was just a coincidence. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

“You really got nothing?” He sighed after his sister told him about her conversation (and after they had discussed the competition and her pretty good skate, of course). 

“He looked nervous when I started talking about it, I guess,” Katara shrugged. “What did you want me to do? It’s not like I could subtly ask. We’re not exactly on that level of friendship yet.”

“No, right, of course,” of course there was no way Katara could’ve subtly asked. Maybe it had been a stupid plan, to begin with. But he had to do  _ something.  _ Getting nervous was not enough proof. There could be a million reasons as to why Zuko looked nervous. “That’s okay though. I have a plan B.”

Katara, probably justified, didn’t look too impressed. “Do I want to know?”

Admittedly, it wasn’t the best plan he has ever come up with, but it was a plan. 

“The plan is to just send him cute tweets and Instagram posts like the one he liked and see how he reacts.”

“I cannot believe— no, you know what? I can believe you’d come up with a plan like that,” she said as she shook her head, “Sokka, you can’t even  _ see _ his reaction. You’re literally talking about text messages here.”

“I know but, he’ll crack eventually,” after a bit, surely Zuko must have  _ some _ kind of reaction. Surely. Again, not his best plan but still a plan. 

“This is a terrible plan. Just talk to him,” it almost came out more like a plea. 

“Absolutely not, I need proof first” it was a safe plan as well. Worst case, Zuko would not reply, or tell him to stop. Best case… well, he wasn’t sure what the best case would be, but the worst case wasn’t terrible so it was good enough for him. 

~~

**Sokka: ** hey, remember this? 

**Zuko:** We literally took that picture not even a month ago. How bad do you think my memory is?

**Sokka: ** it’s a cute picture though

**Zuko:** I guess it is. 

~~

**Sokka:** we looked so cute with those flower crowns

**Zuko: ** They were nice flower crowns. 

**Sokka:** oh, come on. you loved them! :D

**Zuko:** I did not. 

**Sokka:** you did!

**Zuko: ** Maybe a little bit. 

**~~**

**Sokka: ** look at this edit someone made! our fans are really talented

**Zuko: ** ... right

**Sokka:** i think you should promote your fans’ art more

**Zuko: ** Are you mocking me? 

**Sokka: ** i would never 

**Zuko:** Maybe you can start by promoting your own fans’ art. 

**Sokka:** maybe i will

~~

**Zuko:** I didn’t mean that kind of art. 

**Sokka:** art is art

**Sokka: ** who are you? the art police? 

**Zuko:** Whatever. 

**Zuko:** I guess the art style is kind of nice. 

**Sokka: ** i think so too

~~

**Sokka: ** almost Grand Prix final again! i love this picture from last year

**Sokka: ** you really started warming up to me back then right? :D

**Zuko:** You literally told me a bad pun and then tried to explain said pun and then made  _ another _ bad pun. 

**Sokka: ** ah, but you loved it, right?

**Zuko:** I did no such thing. 

**Sokka:** i bet you secretly really loved my puns

**Sokka:** in fact, i bet thats the reason were friends now

**Sokka:** my puns formed our friendship

**Zuko: ** You have no proof. 

**Sokka: ** then tell me, what formed our friendship?

**Zuko:** … 

**Zuko: ** Do you know you were the first of my competitors to be bold enough to hug me during the victory ceremony?

**Sokka: ** ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 

**Sokka: ** wait are you saying my hug is what made you want to be friends with me?

**Zuko: ** I did not mean it like that. 

**Sokka: ** you did!

**Zuko: ** did not!

**Sokka: ** not to be weird but i kinda miss you

**Sokka:** zuko?

**Sokka:** zuko?

**Sokka:** i know youre not asleep yet. 

**Sokka:** am i not allowed to miss one of my friends?

**Zuko:** Maybe I miss you too. Who knows. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I stick to my planning, there are two chapters left of this story. 
> 
> Also, I wanted to quickly say that I hope everyone is doing well during this pandemic right now. Please take care of yourselves and others and stay safe to the best of your abilities!


	20. Grand prix final (2019)

_ ZUKO _

Zuko hadn’t been nervous as he looked up the results of NHK trophy, as his seconds place at Skate America and first place at Rostelecom cup had guaranteed his spot in the Grand Prix final anyway. Still, it was good to know in advance who else made it and who didn’t. There were no big surprises this year, only Chan and Haru who had made it last year didn’t make it now. Instead, two other guys that Zuko was somewhat familiar with made the final. He wasn’t too worried though, they definitely weren’t his biggest threat. 

He also wasn’t surprised to have Mai sitting next to him on the plane to Italy. In the women’s category there were no big surprised either, except for one 16-year-old who was new to the senior circuit that had also made the Final. Apparently, she had won the Junior Grand Prix final last year as well, so it made sense. 

“You seem focussed,” Mai noted, about fifteen minutes into their flight. At least the flight wasn’t too long this time, and no crazy difference time zones either. 

“I am,” he said. He felt calm. Extremely calm. Perhaps he should be scared by how calm he felt. He wasn’t sure why exactly, it’s not like his life had become any less chaotic in the past few months. He was still combining skating and studying and a part-time job after all. But to say not living with his father anymore did wonders for his mental health would be an understatement. “You seem to be too,” of course, he could count the number of times he had seen Mai actually nervous on one hand. Even when she was, she barely showed it. 

“I am.”

Though, he’d be lying if he said there wasn’t one small thing playing in the back of his mind for the past few weeks as well. Well, not exactly small. It was on his mind a lot more than he’d like to admit. “Actually, Sokka has been acting weird.”

Maybe Mai let out a groan, but it was hard to know for sure with the constant noise of the plane. 

“You still haven’t talked to him,” it wasn’t a question. 

That would’ve been the sensible thing to do of course. “I mean, we’ve  _ talked— _ …”

“Zuko,” she said sternly. 

“Just not about  _ that _ ,” or at least, he didn’t think they had. Though maybe these weird messages he had been getting counted as talking about it. Probably not. “I’m sorry, I’ll stop.”

“No, tell me,” she turned a bit to the side to face him better, her face showed she was amused, “please update me on your mutual pining situation.”

“Mutual pining— I’m not—- he’s not—,” he stammered. 

“Sure you’re not,” Mai rolled her eyes. “Then what would you call it?” 

Zuko, knowing he had lost this battle, sighed. “Fine. Okay. I’m pining. But that doesn’t make it  _ mutual,” _ he fished his phone out of his pocket anyways, debating whether he should show Mai the texts he had been getting ever since Sokka had won his second Grand Prix. On one hand, these are private messages. It probably wasn’t right to show them to her. On the other hand, he also knew she wouldn’t go around teasing either Zuko or Sokka about it, leave alone telling everyone else about it. Though, there’s a good chance she’d scold Zuko for his responses to the texts. But what else was he supposed to respond?

“Then tell me how he’s been acting weirdly.”

In the end, he decided against showing the actual messages, but he still talked about them. “Well, he’s been sending me a bunch of tweets with photos of us and things like that, but sometimes the accounts of the tweets are rather… well…,”  _ they have pictures of us with a bunch of hearts around them as their profile picture _ , “and then one time we were talking about fanart, and how I should support my fans more. So I told him that maybe  _ he  _ should support  _ his  _ fans more. And then he retweeted a piece of fanart of us that’s rather, well,...” now he did pull up the picture on his phone. It was hardly private, Sokka had publicly retweeted it for the whole skating world to see. Zuko should be angry, really, except that he wasn’t and he couldn’t bring himself to be either. But he had definitely ignored his Twitter notifications for the days following. At least the art style was nice. “This one,” he showed the piece of art to Mai. In the drawing, the both of them were cuddled up on a bench somewhere inside some house. At least it was pretty tame. 

“Uh, I didn’t expect that,” she made a surprised noise. 

“What?”

“I always expected Sokka to be somewhat good at flirting, from the little I’ve heard about how Suki and he were, but seems like he’s just as hopeless as you,” she said, patting his shoulder. “You two are truly meant to be.”

Zuko whined. “This isn’t funny! No, seriously, what do you think it means?”

“Oh my God, Zuko,” Mai said, her face looked almost as if she was in pain as she grabbed Zuko’s wrists. “Look at me. He’s  _ flirting _ with you. Very badly, mind you, but still flirting.”

He thought back to Mai’s previous words. “Wait, what did you say about Suki?” 

“They were together some time in the past. Not for long though, but from what I heard, Sokka was way more straight to the point with her. But then again, that’s years ago. That’s really not the point right now though.”

It would make sense, really. Sokka is a straight to the point kind of guy. Well, not always, Zuko supposed, but still. After all, he had just walked up to Zuko one day and decided to be his friend, when no one else in the skating world had ever dared to do so. It would make little sense for Sokka to not be the same when it came to dating. If Sokka truly wanted to pursue something,  _ anything, _ with Zuko, he’d definitely tell him so. Just another reason that Sokka flirting with him was definitely not what was happening here. He was just being a friend, in a very weird Sokka-kind of way. Maybe Zuko just didn’t understand it. Maybe that’s just how guys are when it comes to friendships. 

“You talked about Sokka with Suki?” Was what he asked instead. 

“Not directly. It may have come up when I was talking with Ty Lee,” she admitted. “They’re pretty good friends.”

“You talked about Sokka with Ty Lee?” 

“The topic has come up. But that’s not the point right now, the point is, the guy is  _ flirting _ with you. Once again, and I cannot stress this enough, badly, but still flirting,” she sounded very sure. And yet, while Zuko would love to believe she was indeed right, he couldn’t. Surely Sokka wasn’t  _ flirting _ with him. This made no sense. He was just projecting. He just  _ wanted  _ Sokka to flirt with him, and so his brain started reading too much into things. That’s a way more logical explanation. 

“Maybe he doesn’t even like guys,” Zuko then said as it hit him, more softly. There was a good chance this was true too. Of course, there was the stereotype of all male skaters being gay, but that’s just that, a stereotype. It doesn’t make it true. 

_ God, what if Sokka is homophobic? _ A new kind of panic arose in Zuko, though it quickly faded. No, Sokka wouldn’t be homophobic. He had shown absolutely no signs that he was. Otherwise he’d definitely be uncomfortable with the fanart. Still, that didn’t make him into guys. 

“Okay, that’s it, I give up,” Mai said, returning back to a more natural position in her seat. “Please just  _ talk to him after the competition. _ ”

“I might,” Zuko said, though he doubted he would find the courage. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

“Are you studying?” Zuko asked as he once again walked into Sokka’s hotel room to sit on the bed. 

“No, not really,” Sokka admitted, closing his laptop as he followed Zuko to sit with him. There had been an attempt at least, he had been trying to work on one of his projects. But with the competition tomorrow it was very hard to get anything properly done. He had been staring at the same piece of code for an hour now, and at this point he didn’t think staring at it for an hour longer would solve the bug. He’d fix it sometime later, hopefully. 

Zuko hummed as he pulled out his phone. They would do that sometimes, just hang around and do whatever. The times in which their silences were awkward were long gone by now. Sometimes, they’d just sit there for an hour, both on their phone or laptop, enjoying the quiet and each other’s company at the same time. Those moments were needed sometimes, especially because they met so often during the more stressful times that are competitions. 

Zuko looked calm. He also looked happy. It was definitely a good look on him, and Sokka was glad his friend at least seemed to be happier. 

But also, what the fuck was he being so pretty for? This wasn’t fair. 

Sokka suddenly felt brave. “What did you think of the things I sent you in the past month?” They hadn’t talked about it yet during the numerous of times they had seen each other in the past week since they had arrived. Half of the time, they weren’t exactly at the right place (perhaps it’s not something Sokka wanted to discuss in the middle of a dressing room with fellow-competitors), other times he just didn’t find the courage. Or it wasn’t the right time. Or he didn’t want to ruin the mood. 

“You know what I think, I replied to all of your messages,” Zuko rolled his eyes as he hit the power button on his phone once and put it back in his pocket and looked at Sokka. 

“Okay, but what do you  _ really  _ think,” Sokka nudged him, and it had meant to sound playful but he perhaps nudged a bit too hard. 

Zuko let out a tiny noise as he moved involuntarily. Annoyed, he turned his face back to Sokka, glaring. 

And okay, they were sitting way too close again. Why did this keep happening? He swore he wasn’t sitting this close every time on purpose. It just kept happening. 

Zuko took way too long to reply as he pressed his lips into a thin line, clearly deciding which answer to go for. “I think I am confused by it,” he finally said.

_ Fair enough.  _ He wasn’t sure what answer he had been expecting anyway. 

“Confused how?” Sokka asked, more as a whisper than anything else. They were way too close to do anything but whisper anyway. It only felt right. 

“I think you know,” Zuko replied quietly, closing his eyes for a moment. 

Truthfully, Sokka didn’t know. Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked. 

But Zuko’s body language was somewhat open, somewhat welcoming the closeness. And that had to mean  _ something.  _

Sokka, without thinking, reached over to Zuko’s face, pushing a strand of hair back behind his ear. His hair was getting long again, but definitely not as long as it once had been when he was still a junior skater. His hair was also very soft apparently. 

Zuko’s breath hitched as he slowly opened his eyes again, and that had to mean  _ something  _ too. Hopefully that something wasn’t him being uncomfortable. 

Sokka’s fingers were still trailing behind Zuko’s ear, the light feeling of his hair under them. 

Suddenly, one of Zuko’s hand’s was on Sokka’s cheek, now it was time for his breath to hitch. Even with how lightly Zuko was touching him, he could still feel the heat of the hand on his cheek. Involuntarily, he leaned into it. 

Surely, this had to mean  _ something _ too. 

Zuko looked determined and soft at the same time, which was about just as confusing. 

“I’m going to kiss you now,” Sokka announced, or at least, he tried to announce it. Before he knew it, before he could properly finish the sentence even, his mouth was on Zuko’s. Or Zuko’s mouth was on his. He didn’t know who had leaned in first, who had technically initiated the kiss. All he knew was that he was seeing sparks in front of his eyes, as dramatic as that sounded, and that Zuko was kissing him back. 

And it was good. Really good. He hadn’t misread the signs. This was  _ amazing.  _

Until, of course, it wasn’t. 

Only after a few moments, Zuko’s hands were on his chest, but not in the same way he might have liked. Zuko’s hands were on his chest to push him back, as Zuko himself scrambled up, a look of pure horror on his face. 

_ Fuck _ . 

This was bad. Very bad. He had majorly fucked up. 

“What the fuck are we doing?” Zuko said, throwing his hands up in frustration as he started pacing around in the hotel room, way too fast, way too nervous. What the fuck had just happened? Why was Zuko reacting this way?

“Uhm, we were, uhm, kissing?” Sokka had made an effort to sound natural and calm, he really had. But in reality, his voice cracked and he stumbled over his words. It must’ve sounded really stupid. 

“I know that,” the other hissed as he reached for his own hair as if he was going to pull it out. “Why the  _ fuck—  _ do you— I’m— no.  _ No,”  _ Zuko sounded angry, and it kind of scared Sokka. 

He whimpered. “Can we talk about this?” 

“Do you know we have a competition tomorrow?” Zuko said again, his voice slightly raised though he looked as if he was trying to calm down. It didn’t seem to work very well though. “We can absolutely  _ not  _ talk about this right now. Absolutely not. We have a  _ competition tomorrow.  _ Is this a trick?”

“What? No! Of course not!” Sokka said, more panicked than anything. 

“Okay,” Zuko sighed out. “Okay,” he repeated, pinching the bridge of his nose as he was still pacing. “Okay,” he said one final time. “I’m sorry I kissed you. I should’ve kept my feelings to myself. But we cannot talk about this. Not now, not tomorrow, not before this competition ends. We  _ can’t  _ talk about it right now. Later—…”

_ I’m sorry I kissed you. I should’ve kept my feelings to myself.  _ Sokka repeated those sentences in his mind a couple of times. At first, he had thought Zuko hadn’t returned his feelings, that he had horribly misread the situation. That Zuko was just really upset over Sokka making a move, which would’ve been understandable he supposed. But Zuko seemed to be under the impression that it was him who has kissed Sokka first, and hell, maybe it was, because Sokka definitely didn’t fucking know either. But either way, this had to mean something right? That their feelings were at least mutual. 

They had to talk about this. They had to clear up things. Now. But Sokka could do nothing but nod his head at Zuko’s request. His friend was freaking out so badly, and he was right as well. They shouldn’t be talking about this before the competition. It had been a stupid as hell move in the first place. What the fuck had they been thinking?

Nothing, clearly. 

“I’m— I have to go,” Zuko said, and before the last word had come out of his mouth he had already crossed the room in a few big, fast strides, and the door slammed shut. 

Sokka groaned as he buried his face in his hands. What the  _ fuck  _ had just happened? And the worst part was, he couldn’t even think about it. Zuko was right. He should focus on the competition tomorrow. He groaned again. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

He knew using his anger in his skating didn’t always end up in his favour, especially in terms of his program component score. But as he skated, he was angry at himself. Very angry at himself. Both during the short program and free skate. And, well, it had paid off this time, apparently. He definitely had lost points in PCs and his step sequences, but all of his jumps had been high, powerful, and most importantly, rotated and landed on one foot. All of his jumps were well in positive GOE, and combined with his program already having the highest base value of everyone there, he had won the competition. Perhaps not the best way to cope, okay, definitely not the best way to cope, but it could’ve been a lot worse. 

And still, he felt guilty. Not necessarily for winning, but because Sokka had fallen once during the free skate. He was still second, with a 5 point lead over Aang, who got in third, but still. Zuko couldn’t help but feel like it was somewhat his fault. If he hadn’t been stupid, if he hadn’t kissed Sokka, then maybe,  _ maybe _ , Sokka would’ve been more focused during the competition or something. 

They hadn’t really spoken in general since the incident, all there had been were awkward glances across the dressing room and awkward ‘good luck’s before skates. It was all very awkward. Of course it was. And Zuko was angry. Maybe, he thought later, they should’ve spoken about it right then and there after it had happened but he couldn’t. They couldn’t. It had been a mistake. Well, perhaps not a mistake per se, but the timing definitely had been. And so, the whole thing had been a mistake. 

The competition was over now though, and they technically  _ could  _ talk about it, but Zuko didn’t think he had the energy to. He had a lot of practice of skating while angry in the past, at one point in his career he was pretty sure all of his programs were being fueled by anger, but it was still pretty exhausting. There was still the victory ceremony that was happening right now first, and Zuko had absolutely no idea how to behave either as Sokka skated on the ice and bowed towards the crowd before stepping on the podium. After Zuko had bowed and skated up to the third place on the podium to congratulate Aang, who had no idea what was happening, had pulled him into a hug. With Sokka however, there was a whole awkward silent ‘Do I hug or do I give you a hand? Will a hug overstep boundaries? What do we do?’ Kind of panic going through his head. It was a problem. In the end, rather than saying congratulations, Zuko accidentally whispered “I’m sorry,” as he looked down and shook Sokka’s hand. He couldn’t bear to look at Sokka’s reaction either. 

The rest of the photo session after the victory ceremony had just been as awkward as before. Once off the ice, Zuko took his skates off in a record amount of time and quickly left before Sokka could even notice him leaving, before he could come up and ask if they could talk. 

Later, he felt sorry about that too. 

~~

“Alright, tell me what’s going on,” Mai barged into his room, way later that night. It was nearly 1 AM, with the women’s victory ceremony having only been at 10 PM the previous night. It’s not even like he hadn’t seen her yet today. He had gone back to the rink to watch the women’s free skate and had congratulated her on her third-place afterwards. She had skated well, but both Azula and Ty Lee were before her with two completely clean skates. 

“It’s late already, go to bed,” he groaned instead as he threw his arm over his face to shield his eyes from the light. He himself had been in bed for a good hour now, but there was no way he would fall asleep within the next few hours. 

“Tell me,” she said again. 

“No,” he said. “I also feel bad I’m always talking about my personal problems with you,” he admitted. He had been thinking about that as well. Mai was an amazing friend, and she often listened to his rants or useless talking. She often helped him too, maybe even without knowing it. But at the end of the day, he felt as if it maybe was a bit too much. He should be a better friend for her rather than always talk about his problems. 

He sat up on the bed though, leaning his back against the bed frame. The chances of her leaving within the next few seconds were slim. 

“Zuko, I’m literally asking you. I wouldn’t if I didn’t want to know. Tell me what’s going on?”

“What makes you think there’s something going on?” He had tried his very best to act as natural as possible the past few days. Then again, acting natural had never been one of his talents. 

Mai sighed as she sat down on the bed next to him. “Do you know how awkward that victory ceremony looked? Even people online noticed.”

“People online notice everything.” Not that he had opened any of his social media yet. He wasn’t ready to see everyone’s reactions. The only thing he had looked at today were the detailed judge’s scores. Other than that, he had stayed off the internet. 

“Well, you’re not wrong,” she admitted. “Still, you’re sulking. Something is going on. Did you talk to him?”

“What do you think?” Zuko rolled his eyes. “No, we didn’t. But we definitely should’ve,” he admitted then. 

“Something tells me that’s not the full story.”

There really was no point in lying to Mai. She basically knew everything already, so she might as well know this. “We kissed. Accidentally.”

That definitely grabbed her attention. “What? When? What happened?  _ I swear to God, Zuko--” _

“The night before the short program,” he looked away. “I kissed him, really.”

Mai let out a deep sigh as she shook her head. She had definitely been sighing a lot lately. “You’re gonna tell me you ran out and haven’t spoken to him since, aren’t you?” 

“Well, not  _ exactly, _ ” Zuko admitted as he still wasn’t looking at her, feeling his cheeks glow warmer. “We, uhm, mainly I, said we couldn’t talk about it right then and there because of the competition and all. And  _ then  _ I left.”

“Okay. So, what’s your excuse now?” said Mai, crossing her arms. “The competition is over. You should go talk about it now.”

“It’s 1 AM,” though there’s a good chance Sokka will still be awake either way. 

“You know what I meant.”

“But it’s awkward,” he whined. “I  _ kissed  _ him and then basically ran out and fuck, I ruined our friendship.”

“How would you know it ruined your friendship, you haven’t spoken to him about it yet,” she dropped her hand in her hands. “Honestly, this is getting exhausting.”

“Hey, I told you I feel bad about always coming to complain about my problems to you,” though he knew she meant the fact that he wouldn’t listen to her rather than his complaining. It’s not even that Mai’s advice was bad, far from it, which was probably the most exhausting part of it. But he simply couldn’t.

Mai grabbed his wrist that had been lying on his lap. “Zuko, I’m telling you this because you are my dear friend and I don’t want you to hurt.  _ Talk. To. The. Boy. _ ”

“I-- maybe. Maybe later,” he quietly said. 

Having had enough of this conversation now, Mai stood up as she dropped his hand. “Alright, that’s it. I give up,” and with that, she walked out of the door. 

Zuko didn’t sleep for hours afterwards. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

“You’re staring at him,” Katara quietly noted somewhere halfway through the banquet. If Aang noticed how weird he had been acting, he didn’t say it. 

Sokka knew he had been staring. He hadn’t really meant to though, but this whole situation was just… a mess. A whole mess. 

Zuko had said they could talk about it afterwards so Sokka had expected they would. But then the victory ceremony happened, and then the gala practice happened, and then the gala and now the banquet. Those just weren’t the right times, Sokka supposed. Or Zuko just really didn’t want to talk to him either way. That was probably it, really. 

And here they were, sitting across the room from each other. Zuko wearing his stupid fancy, pretty suit, talking with Mai, with Ty Lee and Azula being on the other side of the room somewhere. It probably must’ve been pretty awkward for Ty Lee and Mai, he noted then, to be friends with both Azula and Zuko. It was clear the two siblings were still avoiding each other. Not that Sokka could blame Zuko. 

And not that Azula was the only one being avoided by Zuko, because Sokka was definitely now as well. And it was stupid. They were being stupid. Zuko had clearly said he had feelings, there’s no way there should be this much miscommunication between them. But what was Sokka supposed to do? Walk up to him in the middle of the banquet and pull him away to somewhere they could talk? When Zuko was the one who didn’t want to talk about it in the first place?

As her brother didn’t answer, Katara spoke again. “Seriously, it’s getting creepy.”

“This is a mess,” he said. He had told his sister what had happened, well kind of at least, earlier today. She hadn’t seemed very impressed at all by it. 

Zuko was visibly trying really hard to not make accidental eye contact with Sokka too. He wasn’t even being subtle about it. 

“This is actually getting painful to watch,” she shook her head, standing up. 

“Where are you going?” He said, slightly panicked as she turned towards where Zuko and Mai were sitting. 

“Jesus, chill,” Katara rolled her eyes. “I’m just going to the bathroom.”

Oh. Okay. Yea, that made sense. He nodded. 

They really had to figure this out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I might end up splitting the final chapter into two anyways because it could get pretty long. 
> 
> Also, I know this now takes place in the 2019/2020 season but I’m going to pretend like the ISU awards were never supposed to happen (because fuck the ISU awards). Also, I’m going to pretend like there isn’t a global pandemic going on (Because, hey, it’s fiction anyways, right?)


	21. Euros + 4CC (+worlds) (2020)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh so I know this is about a week late and I’m really sorry! I’ve just been tired and I completely rewrote this chapter about three times so that’s that, lol.
> 
> It ended up being about 5.5K words so I decided against splitting up and I put everything in this one final chapter. I hope you enjoy!

_ ZUKO _

He had kind of hoped the end of the Grand Prix season would bring him some more peace. A moment to relax even. Though he knew it was a bit much to hope for, he still had. But not to his surprise, that hope did nothing for him. For the past two weeks, he had been restless. Partially because of skating, because he really wanted to win Euros and worlds, but also very much so because of Sokka. Well, not  _ because _ of Sokka so to say, more because of his own dumb ass and what happened with Sokka at the Grand Prix Final. 

They really had to talk. They had to. It had been two weeks already, and Zuko was really starting to miss the casual text conversations and not having to worry about how Sokka might hate him. This was getting absolutely ridiculous. If they didn’t talk about it soon, it would mean Zuko had managed to ruin a friendship they spent a whole season to build in a matter of seconds. He really could not let that happen. 

But they were literally on different continents right now, and they would be for quite some time. Zuko just had no idea how to even start that conversation over text either. Perhaps because it wasn’t a conversation they should have over text. 

What did he even want out of that conversation? He didn’t know. For them to return back to how it used to be? That’d be good, sure. But he also kind of hoped that maybe, just maybe, Sokka hadn’t minded the kiss. But then what? 

Their fans, of course, had noticed as well. Not so much that they hadn’t interacted with each other in a good two weeks, but definitely the way they had acted during the competition. Zuko couldn’t say he was surprised about it, his fans noticed everything after all and apparently he was being really obvious. It wasn’t exactly helping though. If anything, it put more pressure on him, and the theories were driving him insane. 

There were many theories floating around as to why the two might have been acting differently. Two main ones that kept returning and a couple of smaller ones often made it to his timeline. One of the bigger ones was that their friendship just simply couldn’t handle the constant competition between the two. And mostly that Zuko couldn’t handle being friends with a competitor, because Sokka clearly never had a problem with that before, and Zuko never had been friendly with a competitor before. The other main one was that they had, indeed, been a couple and that they had broken up, for whatever reason. The reasons different greatly and people loved to theorize about that as well. Zuko wasn’t sure which one of the two he disliked most. Honestly, he wished people didn’t theorize at all about such things, but what can you do? He couldn’t exactly say anything about it, that’d just make it more suspicious. 

And on top of that all, it was only  _ december. December.  _ The European Championships were in january and Four Continents in february. But the World Championship was only in  _ march. March.  _ They couldn’t go a good three months ignoring this problem, could they? Zuko doubted he could. He doubted  _ they _ could. His uncle had already noticed something was off about him too, but luckily he hadn’t pushed it when asking. No doubt even Azula, Mai and Ty Lee had noticed at the rink too. Hell, even his coach had noticed. He was distracted. And it was obvious. 

He really hated this. He hated having feelings for someone and being unable to tell that person properly. He hated how he couldn’t bring himself to just start a conversation and talk about it. And most of all, he hated the fact that Sokka might think Zuko hates him now or something like that. 

When his phone chimed, he nearly jumped. Zuko wasn’t exactly proud to admit that every time he got a notification on his phone the past few weeks, he had felt a pang of disappointment when it didn’t end up being Sokka. To be fair, he never used to get many notifications in the first place, so maybe he had just started associating notifications with Sokka. Yeah, that must be it. 

But now it actually was Sokka, and well, he didn’t know if the pang of anxiety was any better than the disappointment from before. 

**Sokka:** we need to talk

Of course.  _ Of course.  _

Slightly angry at himself that, in the end, it was still Sokka who had taken the first step when he had been telling himself to do so for weeks now, he replied before he could think better of it. The last thing he needed right now was for his brain to tell him it’d be better to just ignore the message. 

**Zuko:** I don’t think we can have this conversation over text. 

**Zuko: ** But you’re right. We do need to talk. 

Though, in hindsight, maybe typing it out would be better. In fact, it probably was better. If he typed it out he could maybe get his words right, he could reread it a million times and make sure he said everything he wanted to say. 

But the problem with typing was, he couldn’t see Sokka’s initial reaction. That could be a blessing of course, if said reaction was bad, but Sokka could literally completely ghost him until the World Championships if he wanted to, and perhaps that would be worse. That initial reaction would at least give Zuko a better image of how things were going for him. 

**Sokka: ** then we video chat

**Sokka: ** are you free tonight?

**Zuko:** Yeah sure. Is 8 pm okay?

**Zuko:** 8 pm in my timezone I mean. Or 8 pm i. Yours. Whatever is best for you. 

He was rambling. In text form. Maybe text wouldn’t be better after all. 

And then there’s the whole timezone problem again. What hour is it even in Vancouver? Maybe he should add the timezone of Vancouver in the Clock app on his phone. 

Honestly, leave it up to Zuko to have only the most impractical of relationships. Why couldn’t he befriend and get a crush on someone from team Russia? Not that the idea of that made him feel any better. 

**Sokka: ** 8 pm your timezone it is 

He glanced at the small clock on top of his screen. 5:30 pm. Great. Still, more than two hours to go where he could stress himself out even more. 

~~

Zuko it was becoming a real problem after he had been staring at his closet for the past fifteen minutes. This was getting ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. He was really debating on what to wear for a stupid  _ video chat  _ with Sokka, who had already seen him in everything from suits to skating costumes to pyjamas. And why was he going through his pants anyway? It literally didn’t matter, the webcam would only show his upper body. 

After the sixteenth minute of angrily staring at folded up fabrics, he slammed the closet door shut with a little too much force and frustration.  _ Whatever. This will do.  _

He wasn’t even about to pretend he wasn’t nervous. It was so stupid. They were literally just having a video chat. Why should he be nervous to talk to Sokka?

But it wouldn’t be a normal conversation about skating and college and other things well within his comfort zone. This could very well be one of the most uncomfortable conversations he was ever going to have. And he’s had a lot of uncomfortable conversations in his life. 

Zuko knew he had to pull himself together. If he could skate well at something as big as World Championships, which had thousands of live spectators and thousands of people at home watching in front of their TVs, he could have this one conversation. 

By the time he got the Skype call invitation at 7:58 pm, his heart was already almost beating out of his chest. There was, of course, a small voice in the back of his head telling him to decline the call. To shut his laptop and ignore this whole disaster until march. But he couldn’t. 

When the call finally connected, Sokka looked… well… as Zuko had expected Sokka to look through a pc webcam. No surprises there at least. 

Why were webcams still of such bad quality anyway? It was 2020, yet webcams still looked like they hadn’t improved at all since 2005. 

But that really was not the point. 

And Sokka looked really good regardless. It was unfair, really. 

“Hi,” Zuko said, trying to keep his voice on a normal volume. Was his audio even working?

“Hi,” Sokka replied. At least no audio problems. That’s good. Their communication was already bad enough as is, they didn’t need additional external problems. 

Zuko was suddenly glad his uncle was out today because this conversation could get awkward real quick and no matter how thick the walls in this house may be, having someone else that could potentially hear it would be even more awkward. 

“We need to talk,” Sokka said again after a long pause, his voice softer than Zuko had been expecting. He didn’t look nervous at all. 

“I know,” Zuko hadn’t exactly meant to sound annoyed, but he probably did. Almost burying his face in his hands, he ran his fingers through his hair instead. 

Sokka gave him an unamused look, which was deserved. He cursed himself for being so bad at this. 

“I’ll start—“ they both said at the same time. 

For a second, they looked at each other and Zuko couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as Sokka’s unamused look was replaced by a large grin that suited him way better. And just like that, he already felt more comfortable. Sokka’s smile was familiar. Sokka’s smile calmed his nerves, at least when it came to this. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. They were on smiling terms already. That’s good, right?

Zuko nodded his head, gesturing Sokka should go first, even when he knew it was definitely him that should’ve gone first. But hey, Sokka had offered, so why not. 

The grin faded though as they went back to the point. “Right. First things first, don’t interrupt me while I’m talking, okay? I need to get this right.”

Zuko nodded again. No interrupting. He could probably do that. 

“Okay so, uhm,” Sokka let out a long breath. Or at least, Zuko guessed that’s what he did during that pause. It was kind of hard to tell through his screen. “You kissed me. Or at least you seem to think you did. Maybe you did, hell, I don’t even know who started it. But I guess my point is, I wanted to kiss you too. I was really surprised when you said you kissed me because I thought it was the other way around,” he scratched the back of his neck. “Because, I kind of like you? And I  _ think _ it might be mutual, right?” Nothing about that last sentence sounded like he simply  _ thought  _ so. He  _ knew _ . It had been obvious enough. 

It took Zuko a second to register the words in his brain.  _ Sokka  _ wanted to kiss  _ him. _ Sokka had thought it was him that had initiated the kiss.  _ _ Sokka had said he liked him. 

As soon as the words hit Zuko, he opened his mouth. He had so many questions to ask that all hit him at once, but the main one being;  _ why? _

Why the fuck would Sokka like him back?

Before he could though, Sokka put up a finger. “No interrupting,” he said, and right. Right. Sure. No interrupting. 

Zuko nodded again. 

Still though, why? How?  _ Since when? _

“I, uh, I have been wanting to do that for a bit now. I’m not sure when. I think I realized around Fantasy on ice, but Katara said I was being dense before and everyone already knew, so who knows? It was probably way before that.” 

Fantasy on ice. That was about six months ago. Sokka had been liking him for half a year. 

What the fuck?

“And once I realized, it was really hard to ignore,” Sokka sheepishly scratched the back of his neck again. “After Skate America I kind of started suspecting you liked me back though. And you kind of confirmed it during the Grand Prix final I suppose.”

They were absolute idiots. Both of them. 

“I’m sorry,” was all he could manage once Sokka had stopped speaking for what seemed like long enough for it to not count as interrupting. He was going to need a moment. Or a couple of moments. Definitely a couple of moments. 

“What are you apologizing for?” Sokka asked. 

“I’m not sure,” admitted Zuko. He didn’t know what else he could do. “For not telling you upfront, I guess.”

It was a lot to process. Sure, Mai had told him Sokka had been flirting with him. She had told him countless times to just talk. And she had been right of course. Honestly, it really shouldn’t be such a shock, looking back. But it still very much was. 

They were actually having this conversation right now. 

And it was going well. Much better than he had expected. Thank God. 

“You’re not messing with me, right?” He asked quietly. Surely Sokka wouldn’t. Surely he wouldn’t be that cruel. But he still had to be sure. “Because that’s not funny.”

“I’m really not,” Sokka put a hand over his heart, though that might just have been a reflex. “I promise.”

Sokka looked so sincere, it was almost impossible to doubt him now. 

Zuko felt as if his heart was beating out of his chest, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of stress or excitement. Probably a mix of both. 

He barely dared to ask his next question. “So, what does this mean?” 

“What do you want it to mean?” Sokka shrugged. “I think— I think we both know what we might want.”

It was a loaded question for sure. Zuko had never really thought a lot about the possibilities because he didn’t think there would be any. He never imagined they’d get this far. 

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Can we like—-...” God, this was awkward. “ _ Date? _ ” 

Sokka smiled broadly again and fuck, it really wasn’t helping his heart with calming down. “We can. I’d like that.”

And then, just as the quality of the video suddenly dropped for a few seconds, the harsh reality hit him. 

“No, wait. We can’t. You’re in Canada,” Zuko said, knowing full well how sad his voice must’ve sounded. 

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

Zuko rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. We barely see each other.”

“Lots of people make it work,” Sokka shrugged, his voice hopeful. “We could try. If you want?” 

It wasn’t only the distance though. There were so many things. They competed against each other. They were both somewhat in the public eye. They were both guys. What if his fans found out? What if their federations and judges found out?  _ What if my father and Azula find out?  _ Zuko pushed that thought farther away. That was one of the last things he wanted to think about right now. But those were still valid concerns. 

And then there was the fact that Zuko might not be the easiest person to deal with. They were already having communication problems before, would this be any better? 

“It will be difficult,” he said. 

“Becoming friends with you was difficult too,” Sokka shot back, though his tone was teasing. “And look, I succeeded! Weren’t you the one who said we couldn’t be friends?”

To be fair, Zuko did suppose he hadn’t exactly made it very easy for Sokka to become his friend. 

“Yeah, but this is another type of difficult,” how the fuck were they even going to go on dates? They wouldn’t actually see each other until march.  _ March.  _ And what about the off-season? What about the competition season? It’s not like competitions are the best times to go on dates. 

“We can try at least, right?” His voice still sounded so hopeful, and there was no way Zuko could say no. 

Sokka had to be fully aware of how difficult it would be and he was still willing to try. For  _ him.  _ He was going to need a few days before he’d be able to wrap his head around that though. Perhaps a few weeks. 

He was going to date Sokka. 

“We can,” Zuko couldn’t keep in his grin. “So, dating?”

“Dating,” Sokka confirmed. 

They were dating. They were really dating. 

“We should probably sort out a few things first,” Zuko said quickly. If they didn’t now, they probably wouldn’t for weeks. They probably should work on communication anyway. “Like, how are we going to do this?” 

Sokka paused for a second. “How about weekly skype dates? If our schedules allow it at least. And we can text and whatever. And then we can go on a ‘real’ date at worlds. After the competition of course. Just so you know though, I’m still going to kick your ass and keep my title. Boyfriends don’t get special treatment when it comes to competition.”

Zuko rolled his eyes. He was fully planning on becoming the world champion too of course, but he had no doubt both of them would keep taking their skating seriously. “Who are we going to tell?” 

Wait.  _ Boyfriends.  _ Zuko had a boyfriend. He  _ really _ never imagined he’d get this far. 

“Who do you want to tell?” Sokka asked. 

Zuko thought about it. It was kind of soon to tell people, and he didn’t have a lot of people to begin with. Still, there were a few he’d have a hard time keeping it a secret from. “Mai and maybe my uncle.”

Sokka nodded. “Family and close friends then?”

That would probably be for the best. They were going to have to be careful though if they didn’t want others to find out. Especially considering both of their fans seemed to have a very good eye for these things. Some of them really could join the FBI if they wanted to. They weren’t celebrities per se, but scandals and rumours were still big enough in the skating world to leave a certain impact. 

“Yea,” Zuko said, and Sokka’s smile became wider. “You’re smiling,” he added, fully aware he was smiling as well. 

“I am… happy,” Sokka said softly. “That we figured it out.”

“I am too,” he admitted. “Thank you.”

~~

“You’re happy,” Mai cornered him after practice the next day. They were alone in the dressing room now, but Zuko suspected that was why she brought it up. “Very happy,” she narrowed her eyes a bit. “Did you talk to Sokka?”

“Oh my God,” he whined. He really was being obvious. He’d have to work on that. “Yes. We did,” he admitted. 

Her mouth spread into a soft smile now. “And I take it went well?”

“You could say that.”

“Have you gotten yourself a boyfriend?” She whispered playfully even though they were definitely alone and no one could probably hear them. Zuko appreciated that. 

There was really no point in denying, and Sokka and he had already agreed that he could tell her anyways. “I did,” he said. 

Mai wrapped her arm around him in a hug. “I told you.” 

He really should start listening to her more. 

~~

_ SOKKA _

He wouldn’t say he was  _ over the moon _ after that Skype call with Zuko, but he was definitely extremely happy about it. Okay, maybe he was a bit over the moon about it. 

So much so, both his sister and Aang had basically noticed immediately. He couldn’t bring himself to care about how obvious he was being though. Katara and Aang were allowed to know. 

And he was just really happy. They had finally figured it out. They had finally properly talked about it and now they were  _ dating  _ and everything. 

If anyone had told Sokka this would happen about two years ago, he’d have laughed straight in their face. And yet, here they were. And to think it all started because Sokka had the sudden impulse to befriend the guy about a year and a half ago. 

And now, two weeks after that first video chat, things were still going well. So well in fact that it would’ve almost made him suspicious. They were going slow, sure, because it’s not like they could really go fast even if they wanted to considering the distance between them. But for now, they were doing well. 

Sure, Zuko and he didn’t  _ technically _ speak every day, much less video call every day, but they definitely had had some ‘video call dates’, as they liked to call them. Their communication wasn’t even going that terrible. It really just had been that one big hurdle of willing to talk about it they had to get over. 

Even though he still kind of wished they had figured this all out back in Italy after the Grand Prix Final. 

Sokka also started thinking something along the way. It was stupid, but it was still playing somewhere in the back of his brain. What if Zuko only liked him because Sokka the only one emotionally available? Zuko didn’t have any real friendships with men, so what if he only thought he liked Sokka because he was just there? It was definitely  _ possible _ , but Sokka still tried his best to not think about it. Those kinds of thoughts would get him nowhere. Zuko had at least some type of feelings for him, otherwise he’d never agree to dating, he knew Zuko better than that by now. So, he shoved that thought somewhere far back in his brain again. If these things kept coming up, perhaps he should ask Zuko about it. Just for his own peace of mind. 

~~

  
  


“Happy new year!” He nearly shouted as soon as Zuko’s video window popped up. 

“You too,” he said rather dryly. Sokka noted the other was wearing his pyjamas already. Okay, so maybe Zuko isn’t a big new year’s fan. Noted. 

“I still have a couple of hours to go,” Sokka replied. It was 6 pm for him now, which meant it was 4 in the morning already for Zuko. He didn’t look as tired as some of the other times he had seen him though. They normally didn’t call when it was this late at night for one of the two, but Zuko had said he didn’t mind, and Sokka hadn’t either. Frankly, Sokka was happy any time both of them had time free to chat like this. “How did you celebrate?” 

“I don’t really celebrate new years,” Zuko replied and Sokka couldn’t say he was surprised. 

Sokka shook his head. “If I was there with you, I’d have kissed you at midnight,” he grinned. 

“Shut up,” Zuko mumbled, his cheeks going red and looking away. It was amazing, really. Sokka had flirted with him countless times now, because, well, he could. And Zuko would blush so easily sometimes, it was impossible for Sokka to stop teasing him and flirting with him. Especially when Zuko’s reactions were like this. It was kind of cute. 

Sokka leaned forwards a bit, resting his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands. “Come on, you would’ve loved it!” 

Zuko, still red but trying to hide it, shifted on his seat. “I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

“Oh, am I not a good kisser?” Sokka teased. 

A moment passed where Zuko shifted awkwardly on his seat again and okay, maybe he didn’t exactly want to discuss this at 4 am or something because why is he suddenly acting all nervous?

“How should I know?” Zuko finally said. “It was my first kiss,” he said more quietly as he looked away and  _ oh _ . 

Right. 

Sokka hadn’t really thought about that though, but no offence to Zuko, he wasn’t really surprised about that. He should’ve known. 

Well, that was kind of a shitty kiss for it being someone’s first kiss. Or rather, just not the best circumstances and reactions. 

Still, rather than saying sorry, Sokka went on. “But you want to do it again, right? Preferably without shoving me away this time?” He grinned. 

“You’re just trying to embarrass me at this point,” Zuko rolled his eyes. “But yeah,” his voice was quieter again. “I do want to do that again. Preferably longer.  _ Without  _ shoving you away. Though if you keep teasing me, I might just do that anyway.”

“What would you think if I flew out to Austria to see you at Euros?” He heard himself say before he even realized it.  _ Where had that come from?  _ He hadn’t even thought about it before today. It had never been on his mind at all. 

But… it was definitely  _ possible.  _ Sure, it was a long flight, and he’d miss a good few days of his own training, but he’d still have the whole month of february for worlds. 

But then again, Four Continents was at the beginning of february. And he really needed practice for that. And Canada to Austria back to Canada and then to South Korea all within two or three weeks would really completely wreck any chance of him properly adjusting to the timezones. 

Alright, so it was a stupid idea. 

Zuko looked back at him in shock. “You wouldn’t.”

“Well, I wasn’t  _ planning  _ on it, but—“

“No buts. Sokka, no,” Zuko said firmly. “You  _ can’t.  _ You literally have to be in South Korea less than two weeks later.”

“You’re right,” he admitted. It was a stupid plan, to begin with. He wasn’t  _ actually _ going to do it. “I just, I want to see you again, I guess.”

“I do too,” Zuko admitted. “But we can’t not before worlds. You know that.”

“I know, I know,” he held up his hands. 

He really hoped Zuko was doing a lot of ice shows again this year. It would definitely make their summer plans a lot easier. 

~~

_ ZUKO _

Between the European Championships, Four Continent Championships and training for Worlds, they especially had very little time to video call each other. But at least their busy schedules meant that time seemed to move faster, and it was march before Zuko really realized it. Thank fuck. He had been looking forward to march. He  _ really  _ wanted to see Sokka. And hug him. Go on a date. Preferably kiss him too. Yeah, definitely kiss him. 

And still, for some stupid reason, he was kind of nervous now he was less than a few hours away of seeing Sokka in real life for the first time since… well… whatever happened at the Grand Prix final and everything in between. 

Knowing they were dating and talking over the internet via a webcam and actually  _ going on dates _ and  _ being able to touch each other  _ and  _ kissing each other _ seemed like somewhat big of a step. What if Sokka suddenly realized how real this was and what if he didn’t want him anymore? What if Sokka realized this was all a big mistake?

No. He had to stop thinking like this, it was stupid. Sokka had said he had feelings for Zuko for a while now. He always seemed to be in a good mood during their chats as well. It wasn’t like they have never seen each other in real life before. It wasn’t like Sokka doesn’t know how Zuko is. He wouldn’t just realize it was a mistake. Sokka would tell him so as well if he brought it up, no doubt. 

Still, it just felt a bit weird. 

**Zuko: ** I’m arriving at the hotel at 6

**Sokka:** im already here

**Sokka:** do you want to hang out? ;))

Was it really a good idea to hang out before the competition?

But then again, it was tuesday. They only skated the short program on friday. And quite frankly, Zuko  _ really  _ wanted to see Sokka right now. How bad could it be?

**Zuko:** What’s your hotel room number?

~~

_ SOKKA _

“Zuko,” Sokka grinned as soon as he saw the other as he opened the door. Yep, that webcam really didn’t do him justice. Not that he had looked  _ bad _ by any means, but he just really looked extremely good right now. “I’m—“

Before he could even finish that sentence, Zuko threw his arms around him in a tight hug. Sokka wasn’t sure what he had been expecting but perhaps not this. Either way, he welcomed the hug as he pulled Zuko even closer. It was good to hug. Sokka had kind of longed for this. 

“I missed you,” Zuko whispered softly into his neck and Sokka couldn’t help but smile at that. “I never longed for a hug before, you know that? I completely blame you for this. Look what you turned me into! Someone that wants  _ hugs _ and  _ physical affection _ !” 

Sokka let out a chuckle. “Can I kiss you?” 

Zuko pulled back, and for a second Sokka got the impression he was about to say no. 

“Of course,” he said instead, leaning back in as their lips touched. 

Sokka wasn’t a dramatic person. Okay, maybe he could be a bit of a dramatic person sometimes. But this was great. Really great. Awesome. Wonderful.  _ Really great.  _

Zuko was kissing him and he was kissing Zuko and they both wanted it and Zuko would probably not storm out because of one big misunderstanding and they were  _ dating  _ and  _ boyfriends _ and wow. 

His hands moved up to Zuko’s face, lightly holding his cheeks, whilst the heat of Zuko’s hands could be felt through his clothes on his waist. 

It was Zuko who ended up deepening the kiss too, and Sokka really had to wonder how the other was so fucking talented at this when he had no experience. 

This was really fucking great. 

Sokka’s brain was really giving up and all he could think about was Zuko’s lips on his and Zuko’s tongue in his mouth and Zuko’s hands on his waist and just. Zuko.  _ Zuko.  _

When he pulled apart to catch some air, after long enough for his longs to start hurting, their faces were still so close. Zuko’s face was fascinating, really. He had been up close, sure, but not this up close. And he  _ could.  _ He could look at Zuko’s face this up close all he wanted because they were  _ dating.  _ God. 

His hands were still resting on Zuko’s cheeks, and his golden eyes were even more apparent now than ever. 

Of course Sokka had noticed Zuko had golden eyes before, how could anyone not? Though really, who the fuck had  _ golden eyes? _ But this up close they were even prettier.

He softly traced Zuko’s scar with his thumb, feeling the rough skin beneath it. Zuko looked so soft like this. Vulnerable almost. If anything, it was just as intimate as the kiss they had just shared, if not more so. 

“You’re really beautiful, you know that?” Sokka said quietly. 

“Shut up,” Zuko mumbled back, lifting his right hand and lightly slapping Sokka on the arm.

Just as about Sokka was about to lean in again, Zuko pulled away. Sokka wished he could say this didn’t slightly alarm him, but that would’ve been a lie. 

“What is it?” He asked. “Are you okay?” 

“We have practice tomorrow,” Zuko said and, right. Of course. Practice tomorrow. “We probably shouldn’t take this too far.”

He was right of course. Practice. Early morning practice. And Zuko must’ve been tired, his flight had been a lot longer than Sokka’s had. Still didn’t change the fact that Sokka didn’t really want this to stop here. 

“How far did you think I wanted to go?” He smirked.

The sudden redness on Zuko’s cheeks definitely didn’t go unnoticed. “Oh my God,” he rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean!”

“Yeah, I do,” Sokka said, planting a tiny kiss on Zuko’s nose instead before he could stop himself. 

“Can we just—“ Zuko took a deep breath, “cuddle? Maybe? I’m tired. I’ve never— can we try that?” 

The question was a bit surprising, Sokka definitely hadn’t expected Zuko wanting to  _ cuddle _ with him. Especially not right now. Still, he definitely wasn’t disappointed. If anything, they could probably spend the rest of the day cuddling and he wouldn’t be angry. 

_ Cuddling.  _ With  _ Zuko.  _

His face spread into a smile. “Of course, yes, we can do that.”

Grabbing Sokka’s wrist, Zuko pulled him to the bed before he even realized it. Clumsily, Sokka nearly tripped over the bed before he got on it and he wasn’t sure if Zuko had pulled a bit too hard on his wrist of if he was more nervous than he’d like to admit, but for now, that really didn’t matter. 

Zuko was apparently really set on being the small spoon, placing himself right in front of Sokka as soon as he had laid down, with his back against the other’s chest. Noted. 

It was kind of adorable, really. Zuko was the small spoon. Sokka wasn’t sure if he was surprised by that or not. 

Sokka couldn’t help but nuzzle his nose in Zuko’s neck, planting another small kiss on his shoulder. Zuko’s hair was unfairly soft as well. The more you know. 

“Just so you know,” Zuko said, grabbing hold of Sokka’s hand that was now over his chest. “ _ I’m _ still going to kick  _ your _ ass during the competition.”

Not holding back the small laugher that was bubbling up in his chest, Sokka replied, “I didn’t expect otherwise.”

He was definitely going to give it his all this competition, but for now, in that moment, this was all he needed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that’s it everyone. It’s been a whole journey. Even though I posted the first chapter around october, I originally started this over a year ago. I never expected it to become this long (my original planning was about 30-40K words), but I genuinely loved writing this so much! 
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment or kudo on this fic. I try to reply to all comments but sometimes I accidentally forget. However please know I genuinely appreciate every comment and kudo I get, they really make my day.


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